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Connect differently
Social media listening in and customer analytics lead to proper allocation
of marketing and sales resources

The complexity of attaining this

n the current dynamic ecoobjective further grows with
nomic scenario, business is no
increase in the organisations cost
longer just about maximising
constraints, number of channels,
sales or increasing revenues. It is
number of product lines, social
about increasing the profitability
network penetration etc.
of sales. To do so, organisations
Each of these parameters leads
are increasingly focusing on one of
to the creation of data, which
their scarcest resource conkeeps on growing bigger. Another
sumers. Owing to the digital and
primary concern that typically
social revolution, consumers are
exists in the Indian context is the
talking to fellow consumers spread
lack of enterprise-wide consistenacross geographies, sharing expecy. Organisations consist of sevriences and interacting with
eral departments and each
brands. With the balance of power
department has its own data and
gradually shifting towards the
from diverse sources.
consumer, most busiThis leads to poor mannesses are aiming at
agement of marketing
transition to a cusassets and inconsistentomer-focused busicy in customer comness strategy.
munication.
A customer-centric strategy for
Tapping the big
improving
shareopportunity
holder returns should
Amid all these chalfocus on three faclenges lies the big
tors: costs, potential
opportunity engagcustomer value and
ing with the connected
consumer
needs.
consumer. Creating
When companies
delightful customer
miss out on these,
experiences across custhey end up placing SUDIPTA K SEN
tomer lifecycle and
customers into inap- REGIONAL DIRECTOR,
across touch-points is
propriate
value SOUTH EAST ASIA, CEO
the key to success.
groups. This leads to & MANAGING
DIRECTOR, SAS
Today, customer is very
inaccurate manager- INSTITUTE (INDIA)
aware. Losing a loyal
ial decisions, impropcustomer might just be
er allocation of mara click away! It is, therefore, vital to
keting and sales resources, and
consistently create experiences
low profits and lack of competithat customers would love to
tive advantage. Organisations
share. Offering a low price or high
need a complete picture of the
discount might not create loyal
measurable value of each cuscustomers, however, giving them
tomer relationship.
an opportunity to connect with
The ever-growing complexity
the brand and stakeholders will
Keeping the customer at the heart
certainly keep them glued
of business initiatives enables
throughout the lifecycle.
organisations to understand the
Another important aspect in
customer needs better. Being cusmanaging customer lifecycle is
tomer centric is a simple goal,
to understand the emotion
however, it is difficult to attain.
behind each data-point be it

insurance and automobile view

social media activity primarily as
a one-way promotional channel,
and are yet to capitalise on the
ability to analyse consumer conversations and turn the information into insights that impact the
bottom line.
By applying data mining and
text analytics, organisations can
discover exactly how people feel
about specific products or services
so that they can pinpoint emerging issues, make improvements,
enhance target marketing, and
identify brand threats.

New-age marketing for the

new-age consumer

IMAGING: AJAY MOHANTY

structured or unstructured. In
such scenarios, reactive analytics
do not seem to work.
Organisations need to adopt
proactive customer analytics.
Customer analytics equip the
business with the expertise to
recognise the customer in terms of
business value, what he/she
prefers to purchase today and in
the future, which communication
channel suits her the most and
her propensity to remain loyal.
Once these insights are discovered, it can be leveraged in running targeted campaigns, optimising
communication,
managing marketing assets and
communicating the right offers
across multiple channels.

Leveraging the
connected world
With over 60 million Indians
using one or the other social network, social media engagement
emerges as one of the most effective platforms to interact directly
with end customers and gain feedback. Today, the role of brands has
changed from that of a content
publisher to that of a conversation facilitator.
Organisations are constantly
challenged to create customer
experiences, analyse sentiments
and measure marketing performance. Despite the vast potential
social media brings, many organisations across industries such as
banking, telecom, entertainment,

Successful marketing is based on

relationships things such as listening, analysing and communicating just like real life. But in
real life, we know that if we keep
doing the same things, were likely to get the same results. In marketing, you may or may not get
the same results if you keep doing
the same things. Just a few years
ago, we were talking about the
information revolution; today, we
are witnessing the social revolution. For businesses, it is both a
challenge and an opportunity. On
the one hand one influencer can
spread positive vibes among
thousands of potential customers, on the other hand one
bad experience faced by the same
influencer can create a negative
image of the brand.
Social media listening in, customer analytics, marketing optimisation and campaign management tools enable decisionmaking across all departments of
an enterprise. They help streamline, channelise and optimise marketing inputs to create a positive
buzz about the brand and enables
profitable revenue impact.