Cognitive Marketing – a big leap towards ‘inclusive customer centric marketing.’
Cognitive marketing is not all the way
a new marketing function. Marketers have always sought to get into the customers’ shoe or mind to serve them and delight. Recent advancements in the field of AI
and Machine learning have pushed the marketing function to great advantages and
in unison greater challenges as well.
Organisations adopting the cognition
based marketing models have shown significant progress in their lead and sales pipelines
in comparison with the organisations who are yet espouse to the latest
prediction based marketing function.
Imagine, the minute, a parent be able
to predict his child’s behaviour, subsequently doesn’t he alter the messaging with
his child accordingly? In turn doesn’t he able to delight the child? Here, the child,
the customer is innocent doesn’t he? And a parent, the organisation, plan and
execute the communication strategy.
Let’s correlate the above analogy to the
modern marketing organisation and we all are smart enough to predict what would
be the value added to the customer and in-turn to the marketer himself. Indeed,
the customer would be delighted and attests his appreciation and naturally the
marketer gets his appraisal as result.
With the above individual and group analogies
we understand that the key for successful customer strategy is ‘prediction’. A
better prediction is a result of much required ‘data science.’ Artificial intelligence
(AI) and machine learning (ML) model based prediction and decisions are utmost
relevant and reliable.
Though the ‘prediction is the key, precision
what matters.’ Prediction of thoughts in the minds of customers’ could be realised
significantly through cognitive techniques. However the precision in messaging
is what matters. Cognitive marketing aids the organisation’s marketing think tank in accomplishing
the same.
As Harriet Green,
general manager of Watson Internet of Things, and Commerce and Education at
IBM, told Forbes magazine, "What cognitive does is help marketers focus
less on tedious day-to-day tasks and more in the bigger picture, delighting the
customer. Today, marketers spend nearly 70 per cent of their time on mundane
details and just 30 per cent strategizing and creating experiences for
customers."
Let’s look at the major advantages of adopting
cognitive marketing in an organisation:
Brand positioning: Though positioning a brand is more of an
art, it must always be backed by authentic data. Cognitive marketing gives
in-depth data and deep dive analysis and models which make marketers' job easy
and subsequently more effective in terms of brand communication to the target
market.
Econsultancy explains, cognitive marketing works much better
than traditional demographic analysis that marketers' use to segment an
audience. And now, the grouping would be based on real behaviour rather than
implied data. This whole process is a much more effective method than
generalizing customers into groups based on age, gender and location, allowing
you to ensure that advertising really hits its mark.
Scientific approach: there is huge difference between a mere
subjective analysis to that of objective one. Cognitive marketing is backed up
by huge data analysis and empowered with AI and ML.
Synchronized channelling: Though digital marketing has electrified the
channels and thus rescuing the time and variable cost, cognitive on the other
hand fuels the effective messaging and emotional reach with help of AI models.
Effective campaigns: Cognitive marketing empowers the process of
messaging by shifting the focus from what customers think they want to that of
what they really looking for by cracking through the customer mentality or
conscious. Isn’t it a step closer to ‘360 degree customer management?’
Dove Real Beauty Sketches, campaign in 2013 used women beauty consciousness
and their perception to its advantage by making an effective short film.
Personalisation of content and communication: effective individual targeting is a following step after segmenting the customers based on demographics. Each segment behaves
differently hence need customised messaging accordingly. Cognitive marketing assist
marketers in focusing on customer mentality and his forward thinking.
Focus on the customer: Although focus on customer is a basic
principle of marketing, cognitive marketing offers AI and ML based modelling
and psychological advantage in designing effective ‘Account Based Marketing
(ABM).’
Empowered customer: when there is message which is linked to his
conscious and behaviour, it makes simpler for a customer to decide quickly and
thereby reducing lead time.
Customer Loyalty: Developments in analytics backed by
cognitive marketing ‘connects’ customers’ better with the organisation and it leads to cross and upselling.
To
conclude, Cognitive marketing is an attempt to achieve perfection in prediction scientifically backed by data and models with the help of Artificial
Intelligence. Hence, there is nothing much to debate about the workability of
cognitive marketing and if there is a discussion whatsoever, it is all about the
case studies of how it makes/made deference to marketers and to customers’.By,
Ajay Ramachandra
Independent Thinker and Marketer
