Drip, drip, drip

Once upon a time, before social media captured our imagination and took away a lion’s share of time and attention, readers did not forsake even the matrimonial sections of newspapers (sometimes, purely for the sake of entertainment). This was also the time before Big Data made a big bang entry into the marketing lexicon, when marketers in search of genuine business insights got their “eureka!” moments from the matrimonial section.

The insight was not just restricted to launching online matrimonial ventures that have now taken away a large chunk of the business from newspapers. In fact, the birth of the fairness cream category was inspired by the copy in matrimonial ads, where everyone who put out an ad aspired to marry a person with a “fair complexion”.

In the years to follow, many more layers of distinction have been added on in this segment. For example, marketers decided that fairness should transcend genders. Hence, male fairness creams and oils made an appearance too. The category is now estimated at more than ₹3,300 crore, and growing.

Cut to the present. We now live in a world where each one of us is a data point on the marketer’s radar. Companies who capture consumer data are sitting on a humongous pile of information about customer behaviour, among other things. Still, marketing insights, like the fairness cream example, are not easy to come by. That’s probably why some senior marketing professionals feel that we live in a “Data Rich Insight Poor” (DRIP) world.

Missing: A joining of the dots There was a time when Indian marketers had less data and more time on their hands. In the last decade there is a steady increase in the amount of data flowing into the organisation. Digitisation of the sales network has enabled data flow to become even more efficient. “My worry is that a lot of this data just lies around in silos,” says Ambi MG Parameswaran, executive director, FCB Ulka Advertising.

The other problem is that, by and large, most companies use data to answer straightforward questions — what is growing, what isn’t; proportion of revenue or profit that comes from which brand or product or geography; which consumer segments are large; what are the top needs in a category, and so on. “While these are important and form the basis of important decisions, they don’t address patterns of behaviour and uncover linkages that aren’t a direct answer to a question but a joining of the dots,” says Shireesh Joshi, Head - Strategic Marketing, Godrej Group.

According to him, even specialist big data analytics agencies often fall into the straightforward categorisation, rather than pursue a pattern recognition that will ultimately lead to insights. For example, a lot of firms offer to help and run digital programmes which can tell what ads are working and which ones are not. While this exercise makes marketing spends efficient, it only helps in identifying average communication which is weeded out by data, rather than generate insights on what makes better, stronger, more effective communication.

Parameswaran points out that with marketing departments being split as ‘innovators’ and ‘implementers’, there is a demarcation of long-term and short-term thinking. It helps create focus. But the short-timers are only interested in their monthly sales numbers and do not care about the long-term issues. The long-term thinkers are not really bothered by the short-term signals being picked up from the market. “In an ideal world, both have to co-exist and help each other. I am not sure if this is happening well in all organisations,” he says.

Consultants point out that this trend might be changing, particularly in industries that are more suited to capturing data than others. Makrand Jadhav, co-founder and COO of Kloutix Solutions, an analytics and insights firm, says “Some segments lend themselves better to capturing data and insights.” In banking, our transactions leave a trail. In online retail, our shopping behaviour leaves behind digital pugmarks. Or in telecom, the kind of calls and the amount of data usage shows our consumption behaviour.

In these verticals, CMOs already have significant teams that look into analytics and are investing in data warehouses and the like. The beginning has certainly been made, but marketers feel there is still a long way to go before Indian companies can claim any kind of mastery over this game.

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