"Honing your communications skills is paramount" - Jeffrey Emenecker of Aspen Marketing Services on Marketing Analytics
Jeffrey Emenecker is the president of the Analytics Group at Aspen Marketing Service, a Chicago-based firm with offices around the country and an impressive client list. [Disclosure: Aspen Marketing Services also happens to be a client of Aquent's.] Jeffrey has twelve years of experience in creating, managing and measuring marketing solutions within various industries. His particular focus at Aspen Analytics is on leveraging analytical solutions within customer relationship programs and knowledge-based marketing campaigns.
I was introduced to Jeffrey by Beth Martin, an account manager in Aquent's Atlanta office. As a veteran in booming field of marketing analytics, I was curious what he could tell us about the state of the discipline as well as providing tips for people pursuing careers in analytics. Here's what I asked and how he responded.
What are common misconceptions that people have concerning the power of analytics to influence the success or failure of marketing programs?
The most pervasive misconception is the belief that analytics plays only a small role in marketing programs, and that creative is what is most responsible for driving success. We've seen just the opposite: It's all about the powerful combination of creative, analytics and the offer.
The effectiveness of analytics is often underestimated. This may be due to the fact that analytics are not a stand-alone entity, and therefore their value can be difficult to tease apart from the rest of the program. For example, the analytics may be very strong, but a program may not perform as well as expected if the offer is poor. With this outcome, one might assume that the analytics provided no help or even contributed to the poor performance, and are therefore not useful for future endeavors.
Another misconception: people often assume that analytics only helps with targeting the "who" of a campaign by identifying those least likely to respond to a program. They believe that analytics can only help in decreasing overall spend and improve campaign efficiency. While that's the most traditional use of analytics, it can also help with marrying the right "what" to the right "who." Matching offers to targets can improve results without decreasing overall spend.
What are some of the most innovative uses of analytics that you've been involved with or seen during the course of your career?
In recent years, analytics has really evolved into a cutting-edge application that can be readily applied to industries across the board...
When applied to entertainment, analytics have been utilized to estimate the impact of a famous personality on an advertising campaign or even a movie. For example, analytics can help answer a question such as how much incremental profit can be gained in a movie starring Tom Hanks instead of a lesser-known actor.
In terms of infrastructure, analytics determine the deployment of billions of dollars in assets based not on physical characteristics of the area, but on an understanding of customer demand.
For all industries, analytics are incredibly useful in identifying "triggers" in data that signal customer defection. With this information, companies can begin to build a process to capture those triggers and communicate with customers before they defect.
What advice would you have for people who are just embarking on a career in analytics?
Honing your communication skills is paramount, but most importantly, make sure you really understand the business you're going to be working in before you jump into serious analytics. It's that grounding in the business that will allow your solutions to be more impactful and understood by the key stakeholders. Make connections with the other parts of the business - don't just wrap yourself up in the technical parts of the position. Gain exposure to as many different business problems as you can - the more problems you're exposed to, the greater your ability to develop new and creative ways to apply analytics to a situation.
What significant changes in marketing analytics have you noticed over the last 10 years? How have these changes affected career opportunities in this field?
While analytics is still a fairly specialized skill, it's certainly more widespread than it was 10 years ago. What is now separating the great candidates in the field from others are two things: 1) demonstrating the ability to think creatively about how analytics could be applied in an area that's not used analytics in the past, and 2) being able to explain analytical concepts to marketers in a way they can understand. In some industries, automated modeling tools have lessened the need for pure statisticians who just build predictive models. The ability to perceive opportunities and communicate concepts is a skill that an automated tool can never replace.
What qualities do you most value when looking to hire analysts?
Curiosity and persistence - you must be interested in understanding things, and not give up easily when an answer doesn't present itself right away.
Communication skills - as we discussed above, it's imperative to be able to present your solutions clearly, whether to a co-worker or a client.
Business acumen - understanding business issues allows an analyst to craft a solution that will work within the realities of today's fast-moving business world. The most statistically brilliant analysis is ineffective if it can't be implemented.
Social Bookmarks