Q] While everyone has a lot of data, data mining to create the right insights still stays a challenge. How can brands use technology to create the right insights that can be acted upon to create ROI?
There are tons of data that are created by organizations today, but that data continues to remain in silos and organizations are still struggling to create a true “Customer 360” approach. The Customer data platforms (CDP) today needs to build a true customer 360 value which combines customer transaction data with the behavior data, quickly create insights and resulting actions to reach out to the customer.
Data collection, analysis, and application allows for a richer understanding of the customer across an entire organization. Feeding these insights into marketing operations requires processes and teams that focus on collecting and making sense of the data, as well as quickly delivering the analysis in a digestible form to the right decision makers—often continuously.
Scaling this capability means organizations need to automate processes that don’t require human intervention, for example, personalizing web pages, delivering e-mail, or generating dashboards for managers to track customer behavior.
While technologies like AI, automation can help do things faster and better but giving a human face to the brands and creating profounder connections with customers will always be the job of humans.
Q] How is AdTech being used by Indian companies and agencies? Which area do you think still lags behind in terms of AdTech adoption in India?
Indian companies are at par with any global company in adopting Adtech or Martech. India being a unique market presents with unique set of challenges and opportunities. According to some reports, today over 50% of customer queries are managed via AI-based chatbots and the global AI enabled market will reach $2.2bn by 2024. Though Indian brands are spending a lot on digital ads, they still lag the sophistication around using first party data. For example, an ad shown in a YouTube video to a kid is the same as that shown to an adult. But a change in data driven approach and intelligence can allocate ads in an appropriate manner.
Q] Oracle being a suit vendor, are you facing challenges from companies in terms of adoption of the entire stack, or are companies going in for individual vendors and service providers?
The entire domain is quite fragmented now. Lot of innovations are happening, and we are seeing that companies are seeking the best of breed solutions even if it means going to different vendors. However, as companies start maturing and move to next level of customer interactions, they are seeing value in consolidating under vendors providing one end to end stack like Oracle as scaling and meeting customer expectation require harmonizing all the systems to work together. It is not easy when there are various systems to derive end to end process and we never suggest our customers to boil the ocean as our solutions are modular to fit as per their needs. We advocate the use case-based approach to solutions rather than a stack-based approach. In case use case needs the complete stack, then that’s the right approach.
Q] As data security, trust and brand and consumer safety become buzzwords in the marketing era, how can brands build a healthy relationship with their consumers, to be able to proactively solicit data?
In the digital economy, given the data explosion, organizations are faced with an enormous challenge of safeguarding their data from cyber-theft. However, the trick here is what do you give back to the customer from whom you are seeking the data. Research shows that customers are willing to share their details/ data provided they see a value coming back to them from the brands, whether it is personalized communication, right product recommendations or even rewards for engagement. They want brands to know them and engage with them appropriately. For this they are ready to share their data.
Transparency in business and especially in marketing is the key. It is important to understand that an organization-wide approach to safeguarding data, driven by a security-first culture, has become a business prerequisite.
