Importance of Data in Marketing
November 27, 2018
Ms. Quratulain Ibrahim, Managing Director of Nielson Pakistan, paid a visit to the Lahore School MBA program on 9th November 2018 and delivered a session on “Importance of Data in Marketing”.
At the outset she said Nielsen was present in 100+ countries and provides companies with an understanding of what consumers watch and buy. In Pakistan, the “watch” function is still not there. In the “buy” function, Nielsen are the global leader in retail measurement services, helping our clients understand what will happen next. Because it has global presence, Nielsen can also do cross-country analyses.
As an example of the above, Nielsen does “consumer confidence index” surveys on say savings, new clothes, home improvements, holiday vacations, investment in stocks etc. and can provide you with comparisons of say the present quarter with the last quarter. Nielsen could also tell you what percentage of consumer spend in Pakistan is on grocery and beverages and so on.
With the help of data, we could construct consumer segments such as consumers who are savvy cost cutters, brand loyals, value oriented etc. We also know in which categories price points are crucial to understand consumer behavior. We also collect data on category growth, how do consumers use the category, what are their needs, what are their attitudes, how can companies effectively target them, what would make them use the category or brands more, etc. Nielsen collected data on 80 categories.
The key to market research and collection and interpretation of data lies in an understanding of the consumer as a human, she proclaimed. What makes it complicated is that consumer habits are evolving. It was important to read books on “habit formation” to understand consumer behavior.
Quratulain, in response to a question on skills needed by a good market analyst, said that he or she needed to understand and use technology, be a good communicator and be able to do analyses of data. It was also very important to understand the context.
Ms. Quratulain Ibrahim, a stellar speaker, is now a regular visitor to the Lahore School MBA program and we value her insights and experience and welcome her again.
Labels: Guest Speaker
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11/27/2018 11:01:00 AM,
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