Catch Me If You Can
Gone are the days when businesses used to worry about how to find customers, their likes, their preferences and more. There used to be an entire industry focussing on market research and surveys. Things look to have changed or rather transformed now. The growing digital world and commerce has opened up fresh possibilities.
The Transformation:
Well, the tables have turned 180 degrees. Now instead of looking for data, the digital age customers are marking their footprints, knowingly or unknowingly for the marketer. This is a completely new environment where the marketer is sitting with a huge cache of information. To top it up, more and more data is being pulled out of a customer’s handset through mobile apps, address book, location, WIFI details and more. All of a sudden, from a marketing perspective instead of collecting data there is a need to assess data. The marketing teams now have data scientists instead of research associates.
The Blessing:
Too much to know? Yes, the customer has provided a long trail of data, which is increasing every second. The customer now teases marketers with a ‘Catch Me If You Can’ approach, with the following fundamentals:
- Online behaviour: Here is what I surf, check & buy
- Social interactions: This is who I interact with, like & share
- Mobile locations: See where I am, who I connect with & my impulsive buying patterns.
Marketers could not have found themselves in a better position, as they know the behavioural patterns, interaction landscape and location of their prospective/existing customers, almost at any time of the day or night.
The Issue:
The issue is to be able to process this data and pull out actionables, and follow up till the customer generates revenue. Smart companies lay the foundation with being able to capture this data upfront and be able to use the same in real time to acquire and retain their customers. This is equally true for startups.
Thus organizations and startups that are able to use this data effectively shall turn out to be winners. In my opinion, this data is a real goldmine in customer retention and building the brand for the organization.
#Cleuz
