Cereal data: Kellogg's on the why and not the what

By Rosie Baker | 29 May 2014
 

If you don't know what your data means, you may as well not have it. Marketers are “information rich but insight poor”, according to Kellogg's insights and planning manager Barbara Edwards.

Speaking at the IAA breakfast seminar on how brands can use content and blogs to better market to mums, Edwards outlined that while so much airtime is given to data, collecting, segmenting, storing it, not enough is done by brands to understand what it means and how to apply that to marketing.

“I think were info rich and insight poor – there is so much data we can get our hands on but we just don't spend enough time in teams of people, thinking about that that really means. You have numbers that suggest 'a mum spends so much time online, or this site'. But what does that really mean and how does that change how I market my brand? It's about spending time with data and the 'why' behind it,” she said.

“[Brands should] be curious – relentlessly curious and always asking why. Get really close to your consumer and I mean really close. People can pick a fraud so easily – so really get close to your consumers.

Reckitt Benckiser's head of media Rowena Newman also cautioned marketers on using data for the sake of it.

“As marketers we have to be careful – we get so much data and there is so much information out there. You can drill down into any kind of user what purchases they make, what day of the week they shop on, there are so many rabbit holes we could fall down. The art of marketing in the era of data is to work out what problem you are trying to solve, what is the communications issue you’re trying to resolve and use that data purposefully – rather than just because it's there.”

Having close insight helps brands move into a position of utility for consumers, which when marketing to mums is particularly important, said Edwards.

“If you can be the brand that helps mums, you build trust, a relationship and loyalty. She's crazy busy and if we can use our brand to help her get through the day – we'll get loyalty for life,” she concluded.

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