Team Chemistry - Sports and Analytics

Late March is as good time to speak about teamwork. For basketball teams, the right group chemistry is essential, and this on display in the winners of the NCAA tournaments. You can also see how fragile team chemistry can be, in the shift that results when an NBA team adds a "superstar" yet changes their whole approach to playing. The coach has to decide how to best leverage the new individual talents while still maintaining a winning framework.

If you are growing or leading a sales or marketing analytics group, you have choices to make:

- the mix of hands on analysts versus consultants

- whether to staff in house or outsource, or even offshore

- having people steeped in your industry as well as other categories, for a fresh perspective


Then of course, the coaching and training are critical. Analytics is rooted in mathematics and algorithmic techniques which have been around for decades. Yet there are innovative digital, multichannel methods. Thus a leader must find the right mix of setting standards, yet delegating and allowing the group to develop some new innovative thinking.

Efficiency, in fitness and business

Efficiency is a great metaphor for summarizing the transition from 2010 to 2011.
I plan personally to become more efficient physically this year, by dieting, losing weight, increasing regular exercise. Making the most of the energy I input, reducing the fatty waste, and outputting even more energy as a result.

While working at General Electric I was trained in six-sigma methodologies, a relentless drive to reduce time and cost while keeping quality high. Six sigma provides excellent workshop, project management, and mathematical techniques for improving efficiency.

A consulting firm or advertising agency also needs to think about efficiency as well. Keeping costs within check while still delivering the best thinking, innovative processes, and high quality creative. In six sigma jargon, those are the critical to qualities. Process, milestones, and metrics are the way to insure the high quality stays or improves as you get efficient.

However, do not forget the investments. An efficient engine still needs fuel to grow and innovate. Note the WSJ article on how major ad agencies are growing their training investments in 2011,

So invest time (and money) in that better exercise regimen and workout for your personal fitness. Also, wisely invest in digital innovation knowledge and apply it.

Analysts -- play it straight, tell it true

This is a call out to everyone in analytics functions at media shops, advertising agencies, and markeitng communications consultants.


I have heard too many times from clients, manufacturers, and marketers that they like to measure things "in house" or "independently" because agencies have a vested interest in giving their work a positive score. This is a question of our integrity, and we have to fight this.

How to thwart this resistance in our clients? By being honest and straightforward in our analyses. Set a good example for all of us analytics service providers. Our goal should be to improve our clients brands, and continually optimize. Even if it means our creative, tactics, or implementations were not perfect the first time.

Want to stay competitive? Use insights from innovative data mining software tools at KDNuggets , or use industry benchmarks or techiques you learn at PMSA
or other industry conferences.

SO, in the spirit of continual improvement, tell the complete story and recommend to clients how to get better. You know what? If you take this approach, your clients will respect you for it, and we will all be better off, on both sides of the aisle.

;)

Making decisions based on data

When developing a learning plan fo a new RM campaign, one of the most important elements to compelte in your plan are the business decisions to be made should the metrics flow one way or another. There should be an in-market test plan, where the decision making criteria are clear depending on the test results.

Then after the campaign has been running for several months, the difficult decisions have to be made. Shifting media spending, improving your website, changing value propositions or incentives.

Think to yourself: what kind of marketer, or campaign manager are you? Do you like to review all the data, weight the pros and cons, and then choose an alternative yourself? Or do you wish your consultants or agencies to make these choices for you? That can be just fine, as they have experience, and should have the brand's interests in mind.

A third option is to remain indecisive; this is the urge to resist. Metricsare not just for learning. Whatever choice you make, choose the path of optimization.

Also, be sure to record what you have learned: the circumstances and the results. This is what knowledge management is, and where "best practices" and "industry benchmarks" come from, after all: actual recordings of in market events. You may as well make your events part of those benchmarks

Holistic Learning: Optimizing your CRM or PRM Campaigns

When developing a learning or measurement plan for your relationship marketing campaigns, don't stop at the dashboards, charts, and graphs. Be sure to anticipate the potential enhancements you may implement to optimize your campaign, depending on what the results are.

Improvements to RM, whether for consumers or healthcare professionals, can range from the most concrete to more abstract decisions, as itemized below:

* Operational Improvements

* Media Optimization

* Promotional Tactical Changes

* Adjusting Program Elements

* Changing the Offers or Incentives

* Adjusting Segmentation

* Re-Thinking the Campaign Strategy

Certain types of measurement findings are more indicative of each of these required changes, and a combination of insights can "triangulate" or combine to support particular optimizations rather than others.

For these reasons, campaign measurement reviews should be holistic, and should gather data from all facets of your campaign: media, promotion-response, website and call center activity, RM participation, and incremental conversion and adherence.
Making decisions based on reports from one class of metrics is, well, sub-optimal.

PMSA Promotional Workshop - Measurement planning key; digital analytics rare

Three weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining 75 of the industry's deep thinkers at The Pharmaceutical Management Science Association's PMSA's January Symposium on Optimizing Promotional Spend, held in Philadelphia,January 28 - 29, 2010.

Most attendees expected to see extensive mutlivariate regression models for optimizing the media mix. There was some of that. However, far more extensive was discussion of measurement planning: aligning to business goals, and gathering the right information sources. The message, do not save analyses until after the campaign is over - Plan Ahead!

Anoher surprise was a question posed to manufacturers in the audience: how many are actively analyzing performance of your websites? Zero responded affirmatively. As digital channels grow ever more dominant in CRM, we need for digital agencies and manufacturers to more closely collaborate in optimizing digital media and the websites they drive to.