Walgreens is after me big time. They pursue me day and night using an omni-channel array of technology and messages. They know an awful lot about me and they aren’t bashful about using it. My purchase volume or my margin must be in the top tier or they must be concerned that I might easily defect to CVS or Rite-Aid. Either way their aggressive stance documents the upside and downside of retailers using big data for relationship marketing. There’s a Walgreen’s across the street from my house. They geo fenced me. Every single time I leave the house, I get a text message inviting me into the store. I am one of the 83 million Americans with a Balance Rewards card, which yields a $5 credit for each $100 worth of purchases and countless pre-loaded discounts at the point of sale. I use the mobile app to renew my medications. They text me, call me at home and work plus they ping my mobile number with all kinds of reminders. They developed a simple, easy-to-use click-to-reply RX renewal function and they email me frequently to proactively renew my prescriptions. They offer me the option to manage my meds online and Read more…
Facebook collects more data than credit bureaus, banks, telcos and list cooperatives. The combination of demographic and behavioral data is a potent tool for marketers assuming they can or will mine, package and share this data hoard. Best of all, this can be done in aggregate without identifying individuals or appending data to individual records, so privacy is assured as is the next premium priced level of service. Here’s a quick rundown of what they are doing with this stash today and what is possible or likely in the near term. Targeting. Currently Facebook has created more than 200 targeting channels based on demographics and expressed interests drawn from posts and profiles. Reaching moms, motorcycle enthusiasts or ballroom dancers is easier than ever. My clients have achieved cost efficiency, though response rates are a mixed bag suggesting that some of these channels need to be refined. ReTargeting. The ads that follow consumers around, on the right rail or the timeline, are behavior driven based on pixels attached to sites visited. Messages are triggered based on pages viewed online or on Facebook. A visit or a page view is a signal of interest or intention and the relatively high conversion rates Read more…
Data is the new black. Touted as a silver marketing bullet, data and scientific thinking will guide creativity in an evolving social and mobile universe. This is the rationale underlying the launch of OgilvyAmp, essentially an aggregation and rebranding of the data wonks buried among Ogilvy’s global offices. This is a great PR move, which exaggerates Ogilvy’s IBM-driven capabilities and differentiates the WPP agency from the rest of us who manage and analyze data for clients. Yet in spite of these press-worthy moves and the widespread availability of proven data collection, mining, processing and automation tools mainstream marketers aren’t walking the walk. So why would rational competitive marketers underutilize tools that could make them smarter, faster and richer? Here are 6 stumbling blocks. Math Phobia. Most of us suck at math or are still traumatized by residual math anxiety from school. Couple this with the general feeling that math constrains creativity and you have an attitudinal bias against using the data at hand. Talent Deficit. The top math guys don’t work in marketing or advertising. Agencies, marketers, e-merchants and publishers are constantly trolling for hard-to-find analysts, modelers and database marketers but come up short. For math savants, advertising is baby Read more…