5 Nov 2013

MARKETING ANALYTICS: From the Macro to the Micro – what matters for you?

Written by Inna Ott, Director of Marketing at Polystar 

Voice revenues are declining. SMS revenues are shrinking. OTT messaging solutions are attracting increasing numbers of customers and threatening operator business models. At the same time, mobile data consumption is continuing to rocket. Every week, we are confronted with challenging news from the industry that grabs our attention and leads to much wringing of hands and introspective debate regarding the future role of the operator.

However, the thing is, these are macro trends. They certainly attract attention, but what is happening at a global or regional scale may not be the whole picture. Local conditions may be markedly different but this can be obscured by the doom-laden headlines. The reality is that every operator is different and has different subscriber profiles, a different mix of devices, and different price packages – and different service consumption levels. This means that the macro news may not adequately reflect the micro situation in any given network. The challenge is to understand these differences and what individual operators can do about them.

Inna Ott
Director of Marketing, Polystar
Contact Inna
As an operator, you must know what actually affects your own network. Of course, global trends are important and need to be considered when defining strategy, but what really matters is what is happening at a micro level. What is happening to SMS volumes in your own network? Which applications are users consuming with their data packages? Which handsets are being used for which applications or which attract the highest data consumption?

That’s why a deep-level understanding of the behaviour of your subscribers is so important. If things are changing, you need to know what these are, so that the significance can be determined. You need to understand what services subscribers are consuming, track usage patterns and predict new trends. You need to be able to collect real-time data, filter and sort it so that relevant information can be exposed. The collection and interpretation of such data is referred to as marketing analytics.

Robert Eriksson
Director CEM, Polystar
Contact Robert
Marketers need access to detailed information regarding buying and consumption habits in order to maximise conversion while minimising the marketing budget. For decades, businesses have been collecting data about their customers and using it to deliver enhanced products and to get more from their marketing efforts. Today, mobile operators are beginning to apply the same techniques, thanks to advances in deep packet inspection and software solutions that extract service experience information that is sorted so that it can be analysed and interpreted. With the right marketing analytics solution, operators gain rich insights into who is doing what, when, where and how at the micro level that really matters. This enables marketing activity that is perceived as relevant to the chosen target group, thus maximising the conversion rate.

Marketing analytics solutions gather data from many sources, including the network. They enable operators to work in a structured way to continuously improve their offerings, leading to a better customer experience and more loyal customers. In turn, this leads to decreased churn and increased revenue. But it’s hard to filter and make sense of the masses of data available from networks. Operators must be able to select the data that matches their needs and which helps them define the most suitable metrics for their success. What’s more, they need to be able to correlate the data obtained with detailed segmentation of their customer base: it’s one thing to understand how specific services are being consumed but how does subscriber demographics impact these trends?

This has traditionally been a job for experts in data analysis, but with modern, easy-to-use Marketing Analytics tools, powerful service experience information is available to a wider range of users within an operator’s organisation.  Which services are popular and which are in decline? Among which age groups are different services attracting the largest audience? Which handset models are being used for which applications? Comparing service consumption and activity levels with information about subscriber groups, their devices and other variables such as gender and age, reveals rich sets of data that provides powerful insights into product and strategy evolution.

In addition to reviewing individual services and their consumption, price models can be examined to determine the impact of changes in trials, promotions and standard pricing offers. Highly targeted campaigns can be launched which may help the success of new services, by ensuring that they are offered to the most receptive audience.

Polystar’s Jupiter Marketing Analytics solution delivers deep insight to make sense of subscriber data. It provides clear reporting of information collected from advanced network probes that are equipped with Deep Packet Inspection engines. The data can be filtered to provide a wide range of reports, which can be customised to suit the needs of Product Management or Marketing departments.

Traffic Report
Filter: Price Plan: 199, Age Group: 16-25, Applicant Category: Audio Video

The collected data can be correlated with subscriber profiles and information, enabling segmentation to be applied to review performance. Previously undiscovered relationships between subscription, customer characteristics, device and application usage can be identified and understood – and acted upon.

This can yield significant benefits for operators. They can take control of their networks and deliver real engagement to their customers by a deeper understanding of who they are, what they do and what they actually want. Without marketing analytics information, collected anonymously, securely and safely from all active users on their network, operators can only guess what’s going on. They may be too influenced by external events and not by the facts that are held within their network.


But with the right information in hand, marketers can develop and launch offerings that actually reflect real user behaviour. Such tailored offers can be more easily differentiated, and it becomes simpler to maintain value to their consumers. Equally, business and price models can be adapted much more quickly to changes in customer behaviour, for example increased video consumption and download.

Subscribers are a valuable asset. Operators have to understand them. That’s why operators need micro data. They need solutions such as Polystar’s Jupiter Marketing Analytics package to provide the deep and specific insight from their networks that will help them ensure a better customer experience while efficiently monetising their services. Every operator is different. Polystar helps each operator make sense of their own unique network and obtain the intelligence they need to deliver outstanding performance and a strategic orientation based on facts.

Drop by Polystar stand, E8c at AfricaCom to explore how your company can benefit from a fast and efficient Customer Experience Management and get aggressive return on investment in a short time period.

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