These issues are driving many of the changing objectives we see from clients -- increased focus by the business on marketing accountability and cost-efficient targeting of customers.
Coupled with this, it is as though we have been on the cusp of a new era toward the concept of media neutral planning. As we move towards an increasingly media neutral environment, the most important thing to remember is that communications have to be more relevant to customers and communicated through more channels than ever before.
Surprisingly enough, all consumers are individuals and increasingly are not only beginning to expect to be treated as such, but are demanding it.
This leads us to the kernel of media neutrality, placing the consumer, his desires and communications preferences at the centre of any media plan (whether that be mail, TV, SMS or press).
The only way to put consumers at the heart of MNP is through data. I believe that the future success of organisations will be dependent upon their ability to collect and use data as a common language at all levels of an organisation.
Data has become the new vogue, as some marketers are proving, by utilising it to unlock ever greater insight into customer.
And as customers are starting to respond better to relevant communication, marketers cannot afford to underestimate the value of it.
Customer data and its effective manipulation combined with marketing objectives and available media form the very foundation of media neutral campaigns.
It is through the intelligent application of data around customer needs and expectations that marketers, advertisers and media planners are able to develop communications strategies that genuinely reach consumers in the way they want, with messages and offerings that are both relevant and timely.
The ideal scenario for any company is to have a single view of their customer, deliver them a consistent brand experience across all channels and automatically contact them with timely and relevant communication.
The challenge we now have is integrating data into the core of an organisation, not just in the direct marketing department.
Central to this is the database manager. It may seem a no brainer but database owners are the people who usually really understand best the information that is held on their systems.
How recent it is, how it can be segmented and what the software limitations are. On the other hand, marketers know their products, who will purchase them and what their profile is.
To unlock the true value of this database knowledge these two camps must communicate in a clear and frank manner, asking what the other really wants and how it might be achieved.
In short, marketers and database managers as well as marketers and their customers need to build a common language that works for each other. In doing so, marketers can create propositions from data that is not limited to tired concepts such as ABC1 segmentation, and are formed instead from dynamic analysis of the data, not preconceptions about which customers the database may hold.
The industry is continuing to see a plateau in traditional advertising investment so there is an increasing need for marketers to strive towards building effective and relevant one-to-one dialogue with customers.
Companies need to take the bull by the horns and grasp the opportunity to re-shape their business. By taking control of the data they have access to and can gather, they need to develop a common language and give data the respect it deserves.
To achieve this, organisations really need to ensure data strategy is a board level issue, forming part of the corporate strategic direction of the company. By doing this, data policies will be driven from the top and with managers being fully accountable for the asset, I'm sure we will avoid the common mispractices we see today.
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