The growth of computerised government administrative files provides new opportunities for creating analytical value for a wide range of topics. The adoption of address postcodes, when linked to grid references, enables the creation of small area statistics, and also facilitates the mapping of results, which has been further encouraged by the Office for National Statistics’ adoption of postcode-based Output Areas as a standard statistical geography. Postcodes also provide a vital key when seeking to match individual records from different sources. Administrative records have obvious attractions: they often cover very nearly 100% of the relevant population; information is also gathered using the same methods across England (and sometimes Great Britain or the United Kingdom as a whole) and, unlike the Census, are updated frequently; they also include hot topics, such as Income. This paper illustrates some of the possible census-like topics that could be available from government files. It then reviews the patchy progress over recent decades, before giving recent examples of the increasing pressure to make more use of government administrative files, and the possibility of now making a long-awaited breakthrough.
The aim of the paper is to follow long-term tracking of the characteristics and behaviours of survey respondents who claim to participate in online surveys. This report outlines the different ways in which this segment of the population differs from the remainder of the population who are active online. We demonstrate that there are some differences in the demographic profiles and these are routinely accounted for when weighting results derived online. However, we demonstrate the much wider differences in behaviour and attitude that remain after accounting for demographics. As a result, we propose some approaches that might be used to mitigate the inherent dangers involved in relying on online research information when seeking to estimate the overall scale of a market opportunity.
Vast amounts of consumer-related data are generated each day. The Consumer Data Research Centre (CDRC), funded by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), seeks to facilitate access for academic and research communities to mine, analyse and synthesise the data and make it available to a range of users through our data store. A three-tier access to data hosted by the CDRC is explained – open, safeguarded and controlled – which details the measures in place to ensure consumer related datasets are hosted within a safe and secure environment which does not compromise data security and allows for innovative research to be carried out that can provide fresh perspectives on the dynamics of everyday life along with a better understanding of issues of economic well-being and social interactions in cities. It is identified that whilst there are currently challenges present in using consumer-related data to convey a wholesome picture of society, the insights gained can provide a more coherent idea of what underpins consumer-related behaviour across the UK and how this impacts society as a whole.
A few weeks before writing this review, I chaired the FC Business Intelligence Insurance conference, Insurance Europe, focused on insurance analytics.Part of the conference was split into two: one group focusing on the bright sidecustomer value; and the other group on the dark sidefraud.The conference was wowed by a presentation from a former fraudster turned consultant, now specializing in advising insurance companies on how to prevent and combat fraud.He made very clear the unending nature of the technological and managerial battle between fraudsters and financial services companies.A common complaint of those responsible for managing the dark side of customers was that those responsible for managing the bright side did not adequately take into account the customer dark side, which the speaker had described so well, when designing customer management strategies, products, processes and systems.One reason for this was that bright side managers were simply not aware of the vulnerabilities they were creating.This led to a tendency to treat all those with problems (complaints, claims etc) as if they might be from the dark side, in turn creating a dark side to the company's own behaviour.This made customers regard companies as 'fair game' because customers remembered or had heard of examples of this dark-side company behaviour.One solution to this problem is for managers to be much more aware of dark-side behaviour by both companies and customers and factor its prevention into their work.They will be helped by this book that provides, for both management students and practitioners, a comprehensive collection of thinking and studies on the dark side, going beyond the normal anecdotal input cited in essays and dissertations and in the trade press.(Although, as someone who preaches the value of storytelling in customer insight management, I would never belittle the value of such stories.)The book consists of 11 chapters by academic and practitioner experts in this aspect of CRM, topped and tailed by a well-crafted introduction and summary chapters by the authors.I declare an interest in that I helped write one of the chapters.
Customer co-creation is a hot topic among companies as well as customers and, thorough communication between customers and companies, is believed to be central to the success of an existing/new product or service. Research has endorsed the importance of co-creation via customer participation. Social media platforms and company websites have encouraged the creation of user-generated content in this era of consumer sovereignty. This article illustrates customer co-creation through social media with the help of a recent case of ‘Crash the Pepsi IPL’ — an advertisement co-creation campaign by PepsiCo in India. This case is evidence of a paradigm shift in power from companies to consumers. It also elucidates the role of digital marketing/social media in front-end innovation. This is believed to be the first article on customer co-creation in advertising through social media in India.
The existing literature shows that there is a negative relationship between irritation and consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising. In spite of this, little attempt has been made to reduce this effect. Thus, this study examines the moderating effect of personal innovativeness on the relationship between irritation and attitudes towards mobile advertising. The authors found a negative relationship between irritation and attitudes towards mobile advertising. It also was noted that there is a positive relationship between personal innovativeness and attitudes towards mobile advertising. Additionally, the study found that personal innovativeness moderates the relationship between irritation and attitudes towards mobile advertising. The findings imply that targeting individuals who are innovative has the potential for reducing the negative effect of irritation on attitudes towards mobile advertising.
The data portability provisions of the new European Data Protection Regulations have the potential to turn data relationships between customers and companies upside down as customers learn to move their data to those providers adding most value to it from the customer’s point of view. Companies need to look at customer data through a new lens: the value it can generate for customers as well as the company.
In 1995, an important report was published by Canadian and Dutch information commissioners which introduced the concept of “Privacy by Design”. It sets out seven principles that should be considered when designing your organisation's systems and processes which would safeguard people's privacy. The report was accompanied by the conviction of its authors that privacy by design was essential if we, the consumer, were to trust business and governments to look after our personal data. If the authors had known then what a data mart the world would become they might have baulked at the enormity of the task of building privacy into our organisation's procedures and IT architecture. Data have become a currency. Over 20 years later, privacy by design has hardly made a dent. The incentive for change has been missing. But the time has now come to think differently. Finally, the impetus for building privacy by design into your organisation’s data architecture is there.
We introduce the application of sociophysics to illuminate the analysis of the comic relief supporter database. This approach allows the analysis to consistently handle the implications that arise from three levels of marketing influence, audience, individual and social. As a result, we identify the characteristics of a phase transition from an individual to a collective type of behaviour. The transition identified occurs at a low level of supporter penetration around 1%. Previous work in other fields links this characteristic to information about the thresholds of connectivity between supporters, and we offer suggestions for the marketing strategies that might be adopted within this regime.
Every year, as gardening brands start building their marketing plans, they face an important question: does Spring start at different times in different UK regions? We leveraged the transactional information available on the Abacus Alliance to analyse purchasing patterns in the January to May period of 2013, 2014 and 2015. Our examination shows that there is not a substantial North/South divide in when consumers start buying gardening products. However, there is difference between urban and rural areas, with customers living in or around major UK cities purchasing later in the season. It is possible that this “urban delay” is linked to urban customers preferring ready-to-plant products to seeds and bulbs.
This paper investigates the impact of social media practices on wine sales in US wineries as perceived by winery owners and general managers. An online survey research methodology involving a sample of 375 US wineries was used to gather data. MS Excel software was used to analyze data, including descriptive statistics and ANOVAs. Results illustrate that 87 per cent of wineries in the sample report a perceived increase in wine sales due to social media practices. Using multiple social media platforms, rather than just a couple, is statistically significant with reported increases in wine sales. Wine marketers in the United States would benefit from adopting social media into their marketing mix, especially smaller wineries. The results suggest to start with Facebook and to ensure the winery owner responds to consumer comments on TripAdvisor and Yelp.
The DMA with its insight partner Beautiful Insights and sponsor dotmailer has published the latest results of its email tracking research series. The results are from the seventh wave of the email tracking survey that explores consumer attitudes and trends for email marketing in the United Kingdom. This article covers findings from the new questions that were added in the most recent offering of the survey and highlights some important trends across the averages reported year-on-year.
The purpose of the article is to explore one of the Cental and East European media markets to determine whether different audience profiles reflect the various industry structures of the commercials aired. The article is based on data from a complete television (TV) commercials data set (n=2,303,435) from 2013. The results indicate that there are only minor differences between TV channels while audience targeting is only implemented by a very few thematic channels. The article contributes to media marketing management research by showing that the differences in the distribution of commercials among different TV channels are smaller than expected.
The IDM Journal covers a lot of territorythe clue is in the name (direct, digital and data).That reflects the astonishing diversity of channels now available to marketers and the complex techniques that are covered under the umbrella term of marketing.To deal with this abundance, we sometimes narrow our focus to a single route to market, hence special issues on digital, mobile or data.In this issue, unusually, we cover the full spectrum, from the fifty-year-old discipline of TV planning through to the still in test-mode Facebook Reactions.As ever, it is the expertise of the authors of these papers that helps to illuminate the issues and provides our readers with the practical insights, which the IDM Journal is focussed on delivering.Continually developing skills and staying up-to-date are ongoing challenges for marketers.Sometimes, this is about getting across the emerging channels and their place in the marketing mix.As Jackson and Ahuja discuss in their whitepaper, 'Dawn of the digital age and the evolution of the marketing mix', change is the only constant in marketing.Only by putting the customer first can practitioners hope to find the right path for their brand through the swirl of opportunities they face.At other times, it is important for the IDM Journal to keep looking at long-established media that newer marketers might never have used or that practitioners may have allowed to slip out of the mix.As Novak discusses in his whitepaper, 'Industry analysis of TV commercials: Do companies reflect audience profiles?',there is a constant risk that the opportunities which data provides to improve targeting are simply not being embraced.Elsewhere, direct mail gets a (now rare) look in with the case study on how Gecko has overhauled Eurocamp's customer information mailing to make it highly personalized and relevant.The impact this has on customer satisfaction and bookings is clearjust check out the results achieved.Email has been top of the marketing mix pick-list for so long that some digital marketers are now moving away from this channel, assuming it to be too crowded and devalued for consumers.Yet, as the DMA Email Benchmarking study shows, the call to action of relevant, timely and personal email is still as strong as everperhaps even more so among mobile consumers.Marketers do not often think about the downside of their actionshow customers might game or cheat the processes they put in place.But as Stone points out in his review of the book, 'The dark side of CRM', every positive action can have an equal and opposite negative reaction.Marketers need to put customers firstand this includes being on their guard against the less scrupulous.
Evaluating any aspect of a marketing communications campaign is challenging, especially when the campaign includes social media. In the past, social media and paid social activity such as Facebook have been measured with metrics such as clicks, impressions, likes, comments and fans. Although these measurements provide an insight into the numbers of viewers exposed to content and some indication of how well the content is ‘liked’, they are less efficient at providing an understanding about how consumers engage with the content. The trial of Facebook Reactions provides an opportunity for marketers to measure such emotional engagement.
This case study looks at how European camping holiday specialist Eurocamp deployed a personalized digital print solution to help it streamline customer communications and improve customer rebook ratings.
This paper traces the journey of the marketing mix paradigm from its inception through continuous debate and discussion over the years. It traces the evolution of marketing mix components and the transformation of the marketing paradigm as society, technology, media, information and money have changed. A significant evolution of technology has changed the face of marketing. The paper uses inputs from marketing experts to trace the all-encompassing and unstoppable expansion of cyberspace that is changing every single dimension of consumers’ lifestyles. The paper outlines the acceleration of the information revolution with the advent of the ‘Read-Write Web’ or ‘Web 2.0’. Within this emergent virtual domain, corporate blogs, online communities, social networks and wikis have redefined the routine lives of individuals and changed the way people relate to information, brands, other people and even themselves. The discussion further proceeds to address three important issues facing the world of marketing today: the implications of today’s technologically inspired environment for marketing in the twenty-first century, the conceptualization of a customer mix as a pre-requisite for the marketing mix and, in conclusion, finally proposes an update to the marketing mix itself. In addition to this, the paper also traces the incorporation of the concepts of relationship marketing, customer relationship management, co-creation, salesforce automation and digital marketing in current-day marketing environments.
Content is highly appealing to marketers, but does not always have the same impact on prospects as is hoped for. This article argues that marketers need to consider adopting the opposite of business as usual in order to achieve the desired standout.
By pooling transactional data from home shopping businesses in the United Kingdom, Epsilon Abacus is able to gain an insight into underlying trends across the sector. For the fifth year in a row, the report shows overall year-on-year growth in the market with consumer spend up 12.0 per cent year on year in 2014. Growth was particularly strong in November (+14.3 per cent) possibly because of the growing importance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the UK market.
