Indian marketing initiatives ineffectual, says Epsilon

Martech, the blending of marketing and technology, is helping brands navigate the complexities, technologies, and organisational challenges facing corporates today.

The mix of email marketing, data analytics, automation, and innovative uses of artificial intelligence, martech is powering up budgets across boardrooms, with brands allocating almost a quarter of their budgets to it.

Missing the mark

Nigel Howlett, Managing Director International at Epsilon, an Alliance Data company, says as customers expect a more seamless and always-on experience, the challenge for marketing leaders is finding a more cohesive technology approach that meets those demands.

However, many of the initiatives employed by marketers today appear to be missing the mark.

Howlett was speaking to BusinessLine about the Forrester Consulting thought leadership paper commissioned by Epsilon, which found that a majority of Indian marketers’ initiatives to personalise customers’ experience are not meeting the expectations of today's digitally savvy and empowered consumers.

Reaping tech benefits

“Martech, in itself, requires brands to be more efficient. There is a massive issue wherein a lot of clients are not reaping the benefits of technology.

“This is around the practitioning skills and around how companies organise themselves and unconsciously manage the benefits, realisations of their martech investments,” Howlett told BusinessLine .

Almost anyone involved with digital marketing is dealing with martech, since it applies to major initiatives, efforts and tools that harness technology to achieve marketing goals and objectives.

‘Know your customer’

Howlett said many companies approach the firm and say, “Although we have spent so much money on all this, we haven’t really seen the needle move.”

Noting that it is imperative for brands “to walk in their customer’s shoes,” the MD said, “Ultimately, what you are going to drive is a customer experience of one or more prospective customers, which will actually enable the firm to do better than what it did before. And the only arbiter of this is the customer. If you want to know the outcome, you’ve to know what the key traits of the customers are.”

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