So now from point of sales data let's go to media planning. Now, I want to give you examples of how companies can go ahead and collect some data, sometimes themselves and sometimes by the aid of other companies to get a sense of audience engagement. So in radio, for example, there are companies out there that can collect this type of data. So Kantar Media, for instance, collects a lot of data, in terms of who's listening to different radio shows, how is the popularity of different stations, and so on. There are other companies as well that collect this type of data, for example, Nielsen Audio. Again, many companies nowadays try to get a sense of audience engagement at the radio stations. You can think about these kinds of engagement even at the TV level. So here, you'll soon collect a lot of data which is from the TV level. How will they do that? With a setup box. So this is the box which is would go along with your cable box. What are they trying to do here? They're trying to basically record who are the people who are watching a particular TV station, who is it in the family, and then the aggregate at different households to get a sense of how popular is a particular TV show, how popular different channels, and so on. So again, Nielsen is not the only company doing this. There are many other companies as well, and other companies following their example. Again, Grand Track is a company that basically collects information, again about TV engagement. There's slightly different ways of doing it, but the overall idea is exactly the same. What would we want to do in these kind of issues, TV or radio? Get a sense of how popular is a particular show or a particular channel. What are the kinds of questions that can be answered with these kinds of data that's available? So for example, who's watching what show? As a brand manager, or in fact as a TV station manager, we would like to know which shows are popular? Which shows potentially can be funded next year? How is the viewership pattern changing over time? And for example, if you start thinking about viewership pattern, how should I be spending different kinds of money on different types of ads in these TV shows? So broadly, these kinds of questions can be answered by getting information about audience engagement and that's what companies like Nielsen, companies like Kantar Media, that's what they're doing when they collecting different types of data either to radio shows or for TV shows. So now we'll talk about social media analytics. So social media is becoming extremely popular. There are many, many people on Facebook, Twitter. You name the different formats, people are there talking about brands, talking to each other, and so on. So clearly, when you think about it yourself as a brand manager, you start thinking about what are customers talking about? You need data about social media, and there are companies out there that'll help you get that data. For example, Hootsuite is a company that does a lot of information and data collection on things going on on Facebook or Twitter. So it's a platform that collects some data. Sprout Social is another example. So there are many companies out there that are collecting information on what customers are saying and doing on social media. So what are the kinds of questions that can manager can answer using this type of data? The first one is its audience engagement. If I'm running a campaign on Facebook, if I'm running a campaign on Twitter, how many people are responding? That gives me a sense on how good that campaign is. Another example might be more along the lines of thinking about brand mentions. Is our branding mentioned more times than our competitors? What's our share of voice? So for example, as we just saw, we could track for instance how many times Wharton came up in the last month on Twitter. You can start doing the search for your own brand and see how it compares to your competitors. You can also start thinking of doing sentiment analysis. So it's not just about mentions, or how is it being mentioned. Is it being mentioned in a positive way? Is it being mentioned in a negative way? How is it being mentioned? And then you can start thinking about linking for instance, what might be going on in the economy, all different kinds of issues, together with brand mentions to see how they might change over time. So social media data is very, very powerful. There are companies out there that can help you collect this type of data to see how your company's trending on social media as compared to your competitors. So now, we'll talk about another type of data. This is broadly categorized as web data. This would be basically all the different kind of searches that you're doing on the internet, all the different websites that people might be visiting, and so on. Of course, there's a wealth of information out there. First is, you can start looking at your own company's website and seeing what customers are looking at. But at the same time, you also want to know what's happening in the market place, and that's where these other companies come in. For example, compete.com is a website that allow you to look at what people are looking at different website. There are of course, many other companies that do the same thing. For instance, Homescore is another company that collects this type of data as well. So are many other companies. So this is another example and lots of other company that basically collect information on what are people searching for, which websites they're visiting, and so on. What does a data stream look like? Again, I went to compete.com and looked for the type of searches and the type of people who are coming in on the Wharton website. That's what it looks like in the last month. So it gives you information, for instance, on unique visitors and so on. So besides, of course, going out and looking at a company that collect a wealth of information, you can have data from your own website. For instance, as an example, Etsy.com is a company where you can get a lot of information, for instance, on what are people looking at. So Etsy has this data, they can look at what people are searching for and get a sense of what products are becoming popular, what websites, for example, are becoming popular, and so on. So electively, web data gives you a lot of information in terms of what your customers are looking at. Either on your own website or competitors website and so on. Broadly, this type of data helps you answer questions which are very managerially oriented. You can stop thinking about any kind of campaign. You can broadly categorize the type of spending that you're doing in terms of earned media, paid media, and owned media. Owned media basically is your own website. Paid media is any kind of engagement that you're doing in terms of aim for that media. And earned media are people who are organically coming to you. If you start thinking about collecting this type of web data, it gives you a sense of what are the other for many kind of campaigns that you're doing. So again, the type of data and the type of questions you're trying to answer have to go hand in hand. Finally, of course, when you start thinking about the Holy Grail, it's mobile data. That's where many, many companies are making inroads. Think about Facebook. Of course, it started it off as a desktop, but many more people are accessing Facebook using their mobile phones. Facebook has this data. They know where people are accessing Facebook and they know the location as well. That's a wealth of information. As another example, there's Foursquare. Again, this is a website in which people can check in, usually through their mobile phone. Foursquare again has a lot of information on where people are, where they're checking in, what else is around them. So many, many such company are basically collecting this information. On the flip side, there are company such as Flurry Analytics. What do they do? They get a sense of, hey, how's your app doing in terms of over all customer engagement. And they can also start helping you monetize the app and make it better, in terms of people accessing it easily and trying to make more money out of the app. What are the type of managerial questions that can be answered? For example, is customer search on the mobile platform different from the desktop? What information to show customers based on their location? So think about Four Square for instance. They have information on where you are. Should the information they show you be different depending upon your location? Probably yes. And of course, another type of question could be, are the coupons that can be sent based on your location? All of these questions can be answered by looking at mobile data, and again, there are companies out there that can help you collect these data. So we just covered a lot about how media industries, companies in the media world track what are the customers are doing. So, should we care about all of these questions if you let see you're not in the media world? My answer to you is, absolutely. Why? Because this is the way of thinking. Again, it’s a customer centric approach. So if you think about the kinds of questions that media companies are interested in, they are interested in who are their customers? What are they watching? What else are they watching? What programs for example are cannibalizing each other? These are questions which are relevant no matter which industry you're in. In terms of thinking about it from a customers perspective. Let's say on the credit card business. They are two big giants there, MasterCard and Visa. If Lexi got into the MasterCard business, well, you could want to know who your customers are. What else are they using? When are they using a Visa card versus a MasterCard? Is your business being cannibalized sometimes by Visa? Again, these are questions which cut across the type of industries. What is the common theme around them? Being customer-oriented. So taking good data from customers, trying to gather as much clean data as possible, I think it's a valuable input when you start making critical managerial decisions.
