Why analytics is the modern age marketer’s best ally

Authored by Kamal Oza, Co Founder & CEO, Phinomial.

In the information age, making informed decisions can often feel overwhelming. But what if you had a tool that could help you navigate these complexities with precision?

Enter Data Analytics – a transformative approach accessible to businesses of all sizes. Data Analytics is a journey that starts from Data Visualization and extends to Predictive Intelligence.

McKinsey reports companies that are data-driven are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, six times more likely to retain customers, and 19 times more likely to be profitable than companies that don’t. The question is not whether or not to use Data Analytics. The question is where are you standing on the journey of Analytics?

To better understand this journey, we can break it down into three key stages – Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, Prescriptive Analytics.

Descriptive Analytics
Descriptive Analytics focuses on making your company’s data both interesting and bringing Clarity. A tool that helps marketing monitor and make decisions based on key metrics. It answers the question, ‘What Happened’ – a crucial input for planning and making corrective changes.

This stage involves Data Visualization in the form of Dashboards for all KPIs or metrics of the business. A significant advantage is it can be a Single Version of Truth, pulling data from various sources. These visualizations are very interactive and engaging. And cloudhosting gives access to dashboards anytime& anywhere.

Descriptive Analytics basically pulls out visible insights from the vast sea of data available to the company.

Coca-Cola leverages social media data to understand consumer sentiment and preferences, aiding in creating targeted marketing campaigns or new products that resonate with their audience. McDonald’s uses analytics to determine new locations, analyzing traffic patterns and demographics.

Predictive Analytics
Moving along the analytics spectrum, a business can leverage Predictive Analytics to solve many of its pain points. This stage helps answer ‘What Will Happen’. Analytics Companies like Phinomial build predictive engines that help marketers get a clear sense of how certain audiences or segments will respond based on specific stimuli. With enough iterations, these predictive engines become highly accurate, enabling bold decision-making. Predictive Analytics is used in marketing for demand planning, promotion management, and new buzz-word Hyper-Personalization, involving micro-segmentation of the customer pool.

Netflix uses data to recommend shows tailored to individual users’ tastes, keeping users engaged and reducing churn. Netflix’s recommendation engine is responsible for 80% of the content watched.

General Electric uses analytics to predict maintenance needs in their aviation division, reducing unplanned downtime by 5% and increasing availability by 20%.

Prescriptive Analytics
The most advanced form of analytics is Prescriptive Analytics, answering the question ‘What Should I Do Now’. This avenue allows marketers to make high-return decisions more easily. It involves Inventory Optimization, Price Optimization, and Discount Optimization among other things. This can be fully automated when volume of data is huge and element of uncertainty is comparatively lower.

Walmart uses Analytics to optimize inventory management and pricing strategies, reducing excess inventory by 10% and improving stock availability by 15%. Phinomial’s Marketplace client, achieved extreme operational efficiency, reducing stockouts by 23% and boosting net sales by a whopping 30%.
UPS uses Analytics to optimize delivery routes, saving $400millions annually in gallons of fuel and carbon emissions.

Data Analytics is a strategic tool that empowers you to make better and profitable decisions on your customers or operations. At Phinomial, we strongly advocate that investing in Analytics pays for itself in the early stages, thereby eliminating barriers and becoming a profitable competitive edge.

The future of business is data-driven, and now is the time to act.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and Adgully.com does not necessarily subscribe to it.

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