FOR ORACLE, WHY EXPERIENCE, AND NOT CONVERSATION IS THE KEY

Traditionally, the role of a marketer has been to come up with an idea or communication that would appeal to consumers, and interconnect that with audiences through high decibel campaigns. The idea was that the more people saw a campaign, the probability of the consumer becoming a buyer would go up.

Marketing has come a long way since then and today, a marketer’s job is much more complicated. Audiences are not simply interested in buying a product because they liked a campaign, the connection needs to go much deeper. Today it is all about building an experience for the consumer, immersing him into the brand story and making him a part of the brand journey.

Prasad Rai, Vice President, Applications, Oracle believes that a brand can only give its consumers a truly immersive experience by giving them a connected experience. Rai elaborates, “For any business, the first step is to acquire anonymous consumers who might be accessing your website. The second step is to convert them into customers. From an anonymous persona, you gather the data about somebody, you know what they like in your brand, and then you navigate them through strategic datadriven approach towards giving them specific information. If the consumer has accessed you online and then communicated with you offline, one should make sure that he feels connected, that you know about their requirements, which brings us to the third stage which is the growth of your consumer base. Connected experience, therefore in simple terms, is to give a branding experience to your consumer, irrespective of the channel where they access you.”

Rai says that recent disruptors like Amazon, Uber, Netflix and Airbnb have been able to reach where they are due to their completely customercentric strategies, and they have customised their offerings based on what the consumer wants. Rai emphasises that today, this is the need of the hour for marketers.

On what Oracle is doing to help marketers navigate this increasingly complex and evolving customer experience ecosystem, Rai says, “Oracle has always been known for data, and we have managed to create the world’s largest third-party data marketplace. So, any brand or enterprise that associates with us can get 360-degree knowledge about their consumers with the help of our data. With the specialized data that we are able to provide, brands and enterprises are able to target their consumers in a more personalised manner.” He adds, “Our marketing tools also help in the removal of irrelevant information, ensuring the interest of communications to the consumer. Along with connected data, we build connected intelligence, which in simple terms means an optimized way of reaching out to consumers on the platforms of their preference, so that there is not an overdose of communication.”

Some of Oracle’s tools that have been increasingly generating interest among marketers are Bluekai, that is primarily used for segmentation and customer acquisition, Oracle Responsys and Oracle Eloqua, that looks after orchestration, and the Oracle CX Audience, a solution for large-scale audience segmentation and audience analytics. Oracle Maxymiser looks at website optimization whereas Oracle Infinity helps in analytics.

All these tools have one primary purpose, Rai adds, that of ensuring the customer has a good brand experience. He says, “About 61% of people hate it when their customer experience is bad. So, in a highly competitive world like today, only the companies that master the art of having data as their central focus strategy to deal with customers, and using that data to send campaigns and customer interactions will be able to stay above and beyond others. Customercentricity is no longer an option, it’s a necessity now. Delivering a good customer experience needs to be in the DNA of brands and organizations.”