2023 Consumer Insights with Dipanjan Chatterjee: Using Data to Navigate Today’s Marketing Landscape
6/13/2023 Matthew Tilley
The current landscape for marketers is a complicated one. However, the concerns seem to be fairly consistent: losing current customers and struggling to define and reach audiences. The response on how to work in this new landscape is largely data-driven.
Dipanjan Chatterjee, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester, provides insights concerning: marketers’ top strategies to navigate current challenges; the implications of data usage; and how data affects your decisions.
Strategizing to navigate current challenges
Supply-chain disruptions, staffing shortages, Covid-19, and the Great Resignation are just some of the primary challenges that marketers have had to navigate in the past few years — all while attempting to keep up with how consumers have responded to these circumstances as well. With this ever-changing economic landscape, and others likely on the horizon, marketers have worked to constantly adjust their strategies.
Given these recent challenges, marketers’ choice of adjustments might come as a surprise. Although cutting back on budgets might seem like a priority, most marketers report that this has not been the case. In fact, some organizations have even increased their budgets, suggesting that they believe budgets are not at risk.
Instead, the focus for many marketers has been on short-term goals — including experimenting with customer engagement by expanding their advertising presence. That newly bolstered advertising presence has one primary objective: bringing in new customers.
“When someone is at the moment-of-purchase consideration and your brand isn't available to them mentally to put on their shortlist, then it’s game over for you. You’re not even in consideration,” explains Chatterjee.
As marketers grow more and more concerned about retaining — or, worse, losing — current customers, another recent shift is taking place: an increased focus on loyalty and rewards programs. To further incentivize loyalty, marketers are also pushing for more promotions and deals for consumers.
These changes illustrate that while navigating the current economic environment can be nerve wracking, marketers are finding that what’s working best at the moment is making smaller changes to their already existing tactics and short-term strategies.
Utilizing data to impact marketing decisions
The world of marketing today is extremely data-driven and technology-centered. However, data usage can quickly become overwhelming, and you can only realize best practices when the right data is examined. Seeking out those key insights can set your company apart from others — but determining those insights is the difficult part.
This is where technology becomes a marketer’s best friend, says Chatterjee: “No marketer has the degree of data and analytical expertise to be able to wrangle all of these terabytes of data and make sense of it. So they need to lean heavily on the various resources and partners that can provide them that. That’s why the technology piece is so important.”
Indeed, making the most of the technology that’s available can introduce you to a wealth of insights that may have been overlooked, allowing you to get to know your customer and what drives their decision-making. Your data is transformed into useful insights. Knowing what your customer is looking for, how they weigh their options, and where they get their information will allow your marketing team to deliver the most relevant brand experiences.
Want to know more? Hear this entire conversation with Dipanjan Chatterjee of Forrester on the Business to Human podcast.
About the series
If you’re looking for a community of marketers unwilling to settle for “good enough,” you've come to the right place.
Business to Human is a podcast that curates conversations with marketing leaders sharing breakthrough marketing strategies that actually connect with people. Each episode shines a light on tough challenges, inevitable failures, and heroic victories. We explore the common threads between every unique marketing challenge and the characteristics of each individual situation. Everyone thinks they can do marketing, but Business to Human proves marketing that can really connect with an audience is a bonafide superpower.
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