The blog

This second part of our 3-piece article series based on an interview with marketing professor Koen Pauwels focuses on the “HOW”: How do marketers use data analytics and how well are they using their tools? Indeed, today the market is filled with an infinite number of data analytics software and tools (e.g. Google Analytics, Marketo, Hubspot, Adobe, Marketing Cloud etc.) that help marketers better understand their customers and answer their needs. Let’s have a look at what Koen Pauwels thinks about it.

Today’s fast-paced, technology-driven society has drastically changed user expectations and led to a more demanding customer base. Businesses today face an entirely new set of challenges and expectations. Luckily, data can give you valuable insights into your customers and prospects. It’s now relatively easy to create a profile of your best buyers, their life-time value, their buying preferences, etc. With the help of data you can now understand, meet, and even predict your customers’ expectations. However, now that most businesses are driven by data, we see other challenges occurring. As tons of data are collected every day, it’s easy for companies or employees to drown in the sea of data they collect, or be intimidated by the pile of information coming at them. And how can we find the relevant data for the business question you want to solve? Moreover, how can your data team make sure the collected data is understood and thus used by everyone within your organization?

Koen Pauwels is a distinguished marketing professor at Northeastern University and BI Oslo. His passion for data and analytics has led him on the road of research and experiments, which have let him discover new insights in marketing productivity, metrics and social media. Today, we can find his work in numerous marketing journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science and MIT Sloan Management Review. As an active member of the advisory board of The House of Marketing, we regularly have the privilege of discussing with Koen Pauwels on his knowledge and experience in topics such as big data and analytics, and also the econometric modeling of long-term marketing effects. We recently had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about data analytics and the role data takes or will take within marketing. Keeping all his insights for ourselves would have been selfish, so we are happy to share them with you! This article is the first part of the interview focused on the “WHAT”: What does ‘data analytics’ mean and what can marketers gain from it?

Koen Pauwels is a distinguished marketing professor at Northeastern University in Boston and BI Norwegian Business School. His passion for data and analytics has led him to the road of research and experiments, which have let him discover new insights in marketing productivity, metrics and social media. “As a kid, I loved pouring over maps, hiking through nature and playing with my compass. Just like the mission in Star Trek, I wanted to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... but then I realized that all new lands had been explored and I turned my attention to the new worlds of science...” Today, we can find his work in numerous marketing journals, such as Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Marketing Science and Management Science. Eager to share his insights, he has also authored a book on modeling markets and on using these insights to improve decisions: It’s not the Size of the Data, It’s How You Use it: Smarter Marketing with Analytics and Dashboards*. “Today, I still feel a bit of that explorer in me. I get to peer into an industry and ask challenging questions, then go out and unearth the answers, to go where no marketing professor has ever gone before.”

In the first article of the VoiceTech series: ‘Voice Technology: more than a buzzword?’ the basics of this new and exciting technology were discussed. In the second article, ‘Why you should start with Voice commerce today’, we took a deeper dive into Voice commerce and elaborated on why you should start with it today. In this third and last article in our Voice Technology series we will explore the ‘how to’ side of Voice Technology and guide you through the first steps you can take to start seizing the opportunities that this exciting technology brings to the table. But let’s first take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and how can we do this better than with a short history class?

In the first article of the VoiceTech series: ‘Voice Technology: more than a buzzword?’ the basics of this new and exciting technology were discussed. In this second article, we go one step further and dive into the commercialization possibilities. Do consumers already buy goods or services via their Smart Speaker? And if so, how is their purchasing behavior? Should you choose to be present on Amazon’s or Google’s ecosystem? Or both?

‘Voice-activated technology goes mainstream’, headlines Chief Marketer. ‘There is no denying that voice is the future’, claims PWC. ‘Voice Technology is transforming our lives and businesses’, announces Forbes. ‘Voice Tech is taking over the world’, according to Huffington Post. Unless you've lived on another planet for the past year, there is no way you could have missed the hype around Voice Technology. Voice assistants are everywhere. Google already announced in 2016 that 20 percent of all searches have a voice intent. This is a number that keeps on growing. According to ComScore, 50% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020. Is this true? Should you be excited? Or worried? Is it the next big revolution or is it just another buzzword, soon to be forgotten? Let’s find out.

New technologies such as Artificial Senses and Virtual Reality are here to stay, and they will change our world dramatically. According to Ray kurzweil, leading innovator and futurist, "the pace of change will be so astonishingly quick that we won't be able to keep up, unless we enhance our own intelligence by merging with the intelligent machines we are creating”. Inspired by his visit to SuperNova, THoMers Florence and Laetitia listed 5 trends and technologies to watch.

Dear marketer, Are you actively working on the triple bottom line (Planet – People – Profit) of your products/services? I strongly believe that this is your responsibility as a marketer.

Last week, THoMers got immersed in the latest technology at the SuperNova festival in Antwerp. Let’s call it the Tomorrowland for professionals, entrepreneurs, creatives, researchers, innovators and investors looking to connect, get inspired and empowered by technology and innovation. For whom tomorrow is unstoppable! SuperNova really was a one-of-a-kind immersive experience where visionary solutions, technologies and cross-industry insights came together.