Paul Writer launches Innovative Marketer Dialogue, 
Video interview series with CMOs highlights marketing best practices
Lata Subramanian
VP Marketing
Sterling Holiday Resorts (India)
On Big Data, Mobile and Social and how is it being used by Britannia?
Data has always been important to any marketer, to any organization because without the data that tells what consumer perceptions are, what their needs are, what their desires are; how will you develop a strategy? Technology has been a great enabler.
There were days when you would call in a research agency and you would do an annual or once in two years study depending on your budget resources to study the people’s usage, attitude, the perception and the brand itself. I mentioned earlier that today, it is a 24/7 world. Today you are tracking usage, attitudes, behaviors and perceptions on a 24/7 basis, at least theoretically that’s possible.
The truth is the amount of data that is screaming at you at any given point in time, can be completely overwhelming. The trick here is you have to know which questions you want answers to. If you’re clear about that, then you only look to the data to give you insights and see whether the data can answer your questions. If you approach the data without a game plan in mind then you can just completely get lost in that streaming maze so you have to know what you are looking for, then data can be a great enabler.
” The truth is the amount of data that is screaming at you at any given point in time, can be completely overwhelming. The trick here is you have to know which questions you want answers to. If you’re clear about that, then you only look to the data to give you insights and see whether the data can answer your questions.”
When it comes to devices you have to pick and choose. Whether it is social media channels or devices, no marketer will have the resources to be everywhere and do justice to all the channels or all the devices. Even if you take as much an informed decision as possible, there is always a calculated risk especially in this kind of dynamic world that we are living in. Therefore, you pick and choose and you say, my best bets are here let me invest my resources here.
