(Part 7 of 7 part series)

“E” is for Evolving

DAVNA’s A.C.T.I.V.E. Marketing concept highlights the six elements that make up an effective living-breathing branding campaign capable of maneuvering the economic roller coaster today’s entrepreneurs face in the consumer marketplace.

Evolving – The END is Not Really The END!

We’ve come to the end of the A.C.T.I.V.E. Marketing program concept overview…but it is not the end of the story. A true living, breathing marketing campaign continues to grow and evolve with each change in the make up of the target market or each new competitive introduction. There is nothing more frustrating than to be caught unawares when you could have avoided embarrassing situations by doing a little due diligence. To support business decision-making and ensure continued revenue growth, entrepreneurs need fresh and accurate data that’s available where and when they need it, instantaneously.

So how do you protect yourself from being blindsided? By building tools designed to monitor market changes and demands into your overall marketing strategy. You’ve heard the term “Big Data” right? Today’s technology has streamlined the data collection process making it much easier to predict consumer-buying habits. There are many tools that can be utilized to identifying changing market and consumer data such as surveys, website analytics, secondary industry research, purchasing receipts and much, much more. The delivery and capture mechanisms are equality important such as blogs, electronic newsletters, webcasts or podcasts, face-to-face interaction such as presentations, networking events, expositions, seminars, etc.

The resulting data and subsequent analysis is designed to uncover change patterns that are indicative of where the market is going and changes in consumer buying habits. This data is a potential gold mine. The term “mine” is key here. Mining the data is a process requiring extensive expertise and due diligence taking different data sets and matching them up to uncover a story or trend.

Following are 10 ways data can be collected and mined to help you gain and hold a competitive edge.

1. Basket Analysis – this technique examines the buying history of each customer within a brick and mortar store or within an online e-store environment. The term “basket” refers to the shopping basket. Data collection methods depend on the environment and the industry collecting the data such as credit card evaluation in a retail environment or phone usage patterns for a telecom company, or even insurance claim histories to identify fraudulent claims
2. Sales Forcasting – attempts to identify purchasing habits and probability statistics based on demographic data (populations, gender, race, culture, etc.), regional data and competitive analysis. You could use this type of analysis to determine a strategy of planned obsolescence or figure out complimentary products to sell
3. Database Marketing – By examining customer purchasing patterns and looking at the demographics and psychographics of customers you can begin to create products that will sell themselves. This data can be utilized to predict complimentary products that might create value-added benefits for customers
4. Merchandise Planning – This system provides a basis for identifying future inventory needs, pricing strategies and new product introduction
5. Card Marketing – There are tons of information to be mined through credit cards like card usage, customer segments and identification that can be utilized to build programs that improve retention, boost acquisition, target products to develop and design prices
6. Call Detail Record Analysis – Companies that rely heavily on telecommunications can monitor income data to uncover patterns and subsequently build customer profiles that can then lead to targeted tiered package promotions
7. Customer Loyalty – Customer or brand loyalty is Top of Mind Real Estate. It’s equivalent to having a Park Avenue address when everyone else lives on 1^st In a world where price matters, it is not uncommon for customers to jump ship every time a competitor offers lower prices. You can use data mining to help minimize this churn, especially with social media
8. Market Segmentation – One of the best uses of data mining is to segment your customers. By break down your market into meaningful segments like age, income, occupation or gender will help to uncover meaningful data. Segmentation can also help you understand your competition. This data will help to identify what gaps are currently in the market that you can take advantage of. Market Segmentation can help to identify conversion rates as you focus your promotions on a tight, highly interested market. You can apply data mining to understanding your competition providing customize products and promotions that will fill the gap being left untapped by the competition
9. Product Production – through data collection you could uncover gaps within the market and then develop and introduce new innovative products designed to meet the pain points identified through your research
10. Warranties – By capturing product usage data and identifying customer pain thresholds through net sales and claim filings, companies can build warranties designed to offer value-pushing customers to by your product over the competition.

The more data available the more value you can offer your customers. However, understanding the data is critical to developing the products and services that customers want. Follow this link to download a FREE report on Big Data – Powering The Next Industrial Revolution. As always, we are here to assist you in developing a customized A.C.T.I.V.E. marketing strategy for your business! One that is responsive to your consumer needs. Simply reach out to us online at www.davna.com or email to info@davna.com.

DAVNA Enterprises specializes in building strategic Marketing programs that are A.C.T.I.V.E. Unique and relevant off and on line programs that engage consumers and inspire action. We take a hard look at your marketing objectives and your audience and create experiential marketing based campaigns engage your target where they live, breath, work, and play. For more information or to receive a copy of our ebook on building an A.C.T.I.V.E. Marketing Campaign for your company click here.

DAVNA Enterprises, LLC is a Florida based firm specializing in the development and implementation of strategic operational, marketing and business development programs locally and internationally. Whether a new business starting out or an existing firm seeking increased market exposure, rebranding or repositioning, DAVNA brings more than 35 years of experience and the expertise needed to successfully develop and execute strategies designed to achieve your ultimate goals. For more information visit www.davna.com or email info@davna.com