Page 235 - (DK) The Business Book

SUCCESSFUL SELLING 233

See also: Managing risk 40–41 ■ How fast to grow 44–45 ■ Organizational culture 104–09 ■ Avoid groupthink 114 ■
Good and bad strategy 184–85 ■ Forecasting 278–79 ■ Marketing mix 280–83 ■ Benefitting from “big data” 316–17

data and the longer the historical team around the world confers once
period it covers, the more accurate a week to examine data and make
the results will be. Models reassure decisions in response to buying
members of the business that every behavior. As McDonald says, “it’s
scenario has been investigated. the data sources that help create
Marketing is inherently Marketers can choose from the brand and keep it dynamic.” ■
about producing results. different models or design their
Geoff Smith own, but the key to making the
VantagePoint Marketing (1962–) model work is data.
Gathering and using data
Consumer goods maker Procter &
Gamble (P&G) has invested heavily
in data gathering and modeling,
implementing digital processes
marketers and others in an from the factory to the shelf in
organization can measure projected order to capture data and feed it
product growth, or return on back. The data can be used to
investment, and make informed make immediate adjustments to
decisions on how to optimize the product planning and distribution,
combination of factors most likely as well as added to a massive
to generate market success. database for future use. According
Gathering the required data for to CEO Robert McDonald in 2011,
modeling is crucial. Information “Data modeling, simulation, and
is needed from all areas of the other digital tools are reshaping
business so that every step in the how we innovate.”
Market research is valuable, but it
process of getting the product from P&G focuses on internal data-
can be very time consuming to gather
the drawing board to the customer gathering processes and also relies
data that is representative of the age,
is factored in. When David Packard, heavily on market information from gender, and background of consumers.
the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, external partners. The leadership Computer models do the work faster.
said that “marketing is far too
important to leave to the marketing The origin of marketing models
department,” he was implying that
the plans made by marketers can Models of consumer behavior is raised by one percent how
come to nothing if the rest of the date from the 1960s. They grew might this affect demand? Then
organization is not fully engaged. In out of a need to make marketing in 1969 Stanford University’s
addition to getting approval on plans more scientific and less driven Frank Bass devised his Bass
and budgets, marketers should by instinct or unproven ideas. model, which is still used to
communicate with all departments In the 1960s US scholar predict how fast new products
to gather data and share it once Robert Ferber advocated the will be adopted and spread
decisions have been made. use of mathematical simulation through a market.
techniques and models. These Decision Support Systems
Using the data, the marketer
became known as measurement (DSS) use measurement models
can simulate product tests and
models because they were to project the outcome of new
input variations using different
devised to measure demand decisions, adding variables—
assumptions about elements of
for a product as a function of such as previous outcomes in
the marketing mix, such as market
various independent variables— similar contexts—to help
conditions and consumer behavior. for example, if the selling price marketers make optimal choices.
The greater the amount of relevant