marketing intelligence

marketing intelligence

The terms marketing intelligence can be understood from two points of view.

On the one hand, they refer to business intelligence in the service of the marketing function, i.e. the search for strategic information useful for the company's marketing decisions. On the other hand, it is rather a question of intelligence in the sense of ingenuity and understanding of current marketing concepts. On the one hand, it may be a complement to study marketing, on the other hand, it may be more about subtlety and innovation in the application of marketing fundamentals.

Definitions 

(Marketing intelligence)

Marketing intelligence is defined as a "system developed to collect, store, analyze and interpret marketing information available in the environment in which the company is located". The challenge of this system is therefore to design an effective marketing strategy that is adapted to the environment, but also to determine the circumstances that will make it efficient when implemented.

Joël Le Bon explains that: "Since they cannot integrate and manage all the information flows necessary for decision-makers, management information systems are actually composed of subsystems specific to the various functions of the company (marketing, finance, etc.)".

Marketing intelligence is therefore a subset of economic intelligence, which is defined as "all the coordinated activities of collecting, processing and disseminating information useful to economic actors, with a view to its exploitation".

Marketing interests, issues, and recommendations

Interests
Marketing intelligence has different interests for the organization that knows how to control it. First of all, by setting up such a system, the company puts its customer at the heart of its project. The objective is to better understand it in order to better satisfy it and thus build its loyalty. Marketing intelligence therefore makes it possible to multiply the sources of knowledge of customer targets in order to obtain as much information as possible about them, particularly through different data collection tools.

Issues and recommendations

To better address the new challenges of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, authors have compiled seven major issues for "smart marketers":

To be an actor in the strategy and its operational implementation

The marketer must imperatively identify the major strategic levers for development in his environment, by monitoring both sector leaders, companies in motion and external opportunities on and analysing the prospects of the following themes: international expansions, acquisitions and alliances, innovation, product/service strategy (including the transition from product strategies to service and solution offerings), diversification and extension of the corporate value chain, customer intelligence and strengthening of the relationship with the end customer, digital transformation of businesses, new value creation (e. g. currently sustainable development and corporate CSR policies).

Understand and anticipate changes in consumer behaviour

In order to optimize all marketing actions, it is necessary to anticipate the behaviour of consumers in the broadest sense, whether it is the user, the buyer or future consumers. On the one hand, there is a strong importance of the value attributed to the product that can be verified in different ways; the graph opposite set up by JP Aimetti and JM Raicovitch shows the different consumer studies based on these values. On the other hand, marketing intelligence makes it possible to control the multiplication of sources used to know and anticipate behaviours prospectively, notably thanks to the advent of Big Data in the 2000s.

Innovate or perish

Innovation can nowadays be considered as essential in companies' strategies, in particular to differentiate themselves or to cultivate a relative advantage. Innovation makes it possible to cope with three phenomena: the growing demands of consumers, the acceleration of scientific progress, and the resurgent strategies of internationalization (especially in emerging countries where the company must offer offers that are not comparable to local companies in order to exist). Innovation can take place in all areas, processes and functions of the company. A distinction is made between incremental innovations (poorly perceived by the consumer but interesting for companies), disruptive innovations (a real technological advance or a real improvement in the consumer experience).

The success of innovation initiatives results from the impetus of management (innovation culture), the integration of R&D into the company, creativity and the forward-looking approach.

Successful digital transformation

Digital transformation is a revolution in the same way as the industrial revolution in its time. It is more a matter of culture than a technological fact.

It seems important to understand new uses and NICTs in order to handle new sources of information and define your digital presence strategy. This allows for new types of customer relationships and enriches the customer experience. We are witnessing a strong dematerialization and decentralization of certain products (e.g. online banking).

Managing a cross-channel distribution

The move towards cross-channel allows the use of complementary presence modes to interact with the consumer. The marketer must ensure that the various channels are evaluated and managed and that the implementation is planned. Collaboration with different providers can be envisaged (e.g. specialised agencies).

Organize efficient marketing

In a context of major changes in the corporate world, it is important to adapt marketing skills to the company's business activities. It is a question of marking the competence of marketing around the customer.

Essential components and tools

Transactional data
Customer databases constitute a digital asset with high added value for the company. Their analysis and operational exploitation can be a real driver of operational growth for the company.

Advanced technologies and tools

Strong technological skills are essential to analyze and structure the mass of information present in databases (Big Data or megadata). Marketing intelligence specialists offer ergonomic and user-friendly offers that can be easily used by trained marketing teams to understand and explain them. Data dissemination is facilitated by access to the company's intranet, which becomes the central storage place. There are also technologies such as Extraction Transfer Loading that facilitate access to data available in several types of databases.

In addition, different tools exist to collect information and allow analysis by the organization's marketing managers: consumer, distributor and audience panels, the use of CRM databases, ethnographic observation[3], message analysis on blogs, forums and social networks and neuro-marketing.

Business expertise
Nevertheless, the company's strategy remains the cornerstone of marketing intelligence. Quite simply, coupled with data intelligence, these strategic actions are becoming more effective, more original and more targeted.

Immediate applications for the marketer

Measure the performance of marketing campaigns

Marketing intelligence is used to measure the performance of new product launch campaigns, promotional campaigns, direct marketing actions and catalogue distribution. It makes it possible to establish profitability criteria that facilitate the choice of budget allocation for campaigns. The use of marketing intelligence solutions thus promotes a better rate of return on actions. According to some studies, the marketing actions of companies that use this method would reach 75% of the objectives compared to 50% for those that do not use it.

Improve customer relationship management

Marketing intelligence also allows for a finer segmentation of the customer base. This allows the marketer to adopt more rational working methods based on more precise and reliable indicators. For example, the combination of a geomarketing component with its business intelligence tool has enabled Ikea to better target its customers and reduce the number of catalogues distributed in mailboxes. Call centers also use marketing intelligence solutions that promote continuous analysis of customer files and improve the relationship process. For example, when a customer calls, a window automatically opens on the call centre's screen. This allows the customer to have direct access to the customer's history. If the window indicates that the customer sends SMS very frequently, the call centre agent can offer him a special package as part of a move upmarket.