Numbers. Numbers. Numbers: How Technology is Redefining the Marketing Function

Jaimit Doshi represents the new breed of CMOs who look at technology as the greatest ally in delivering superior performance in the function of marketing and product management. Jaimit is the Head, Marketing and Products at Kotak Securities. With nearly 14 years of experience in the financial services industry in India and in the UK, Doshi's understanding of the financial services industry is deep and so is his grasp on digital technologies.

In this exclusive interview with Dataquest, Doshi airs his views on how technology is redefining the marketing function, how CIO-CMO relationships work, how analytics is going to be core competency of a marketer, and the ways in which things work in the digital world. Excerpts:

Foes or Allies? Technology is fusing the roles of the CIO and CMO. How did all this start?

Yes. The discussion about CIO-CMO role in technology is really heating up. A few years back when online presence was the starting point, the role of the CMO was relegated to making websites look good. The CIO or CTO knew the technology but not so much making it appealing or user-friendly and that's where the CMO came in. He would champion the cause of good design. In the end, it was basically brochure-ware.

What now?

Technology has now gone beyond and it has become far more integrated with managing the customer-facing processes. There is a way to record and measure everything that the customer does, you can record and measure how effectively you reach out to the customer, and how you engage with the customer. Digital marketing has now evolved in many directions and it is wholly based on technology.

How is it changing the stakes for the CMO?

The CMO needs to definitely understand technology in terms of what all data can be collected, technology to make sense of that data, and to use that data across various mediums. The CMO, however clever he may be at marketing, but if he is not savvy with technology, the odds are going to be very high. Because the stakes are high.

 

How do the CIO ad CMO fit in here?

For the CMO, customer management is increasingly getting tied in with technology. For the CIO, technology is increasingly getting customer-facing. The CMO and CIO need to work with each other. Both are addressing two different parts of the equation. The CIO needs to understand the CMO's needs in terms of understanding the customer and reaching out to him.

The investment is strategic but not necessarily huge. The tools and technologies are becoming cheaper and they are innumerable. You don't need to buy them, you can hire them. People are willing to work on the basis of proof of success. Both are getting into buying meetings. You see a lot of joint meetings. CMOs sit through lots of IT presentations that may seem like rocket science to them, but they are now part of the technology conversation.

Doesn't that require the CMO to get a whole new perspective on managing his function? Are there any similar implications for the CIO?

No particular background (age, education, or industry) would help the CMO handle the new era of technology-driven marketing because there was never something like this before. However, there is the aspect of readiness that is more important and this is equally true for both the CMO and the CIO. Both need to have or develop a deep understanding of consumer insight. Both need to have a head for statistics which is about understanding and managing large amounts of data. Both need to understand the role of technology and its changing role in the field of marketing. More importantly, technology allows them to get answers to a whole set of new questions; these answers were not available before.
But again, it helps only if you can ask the right and relevant questions. That is, both the CMO and the CIO need to be able to ask the right questions.

At Kotak Securities, my CIO and IT guys ask me questions such as: What is the customer insight I have? Or what is the customer problem we are trying to solve? The CIO can get threatened by the CMO and the CMO can get threatened by the CIO. But both need to work together to add value to the organization.

How should a CMO go about learning this new stuff?

This would require effort to learn, adapt, and apply on a continuous basis. There is no shortcut to this. The Internet is a great source of information; vendors too are a great source of information. Some of the digital agencies are good at coming up with interesting propositions with technology.

How do you use digital technology in marketing at Kotak Securities?

In the BFSI industry, we are one of the foremost companies in leveraging digital marketing. We have embraced digital to such an extent that we have almost no use for traditional advertising. Digital embraces the whole cycle of our marketing activities- acquisitions, brand, retention, engagement, outreach, education, and beyond. Further, all of this is highly integrated. Even our PR is digital in which we focus on great online content, we focus on influencing bloggers. All this adds to our digital thrust in a dramatic way.

What's the operational model for running this?

We have an internal team as well as a set of external digital specialists who handle different aspects such as acquisition, social media, online brand monitoring, relationship management, and such. As I said before, all of this works in an integrated manner in terms of both strategy and execution.

Any example to illustrate all this-the integration bit, the role of digital partners...?

As I said, the digital agencies help with coming up with creative suggestions. Let me give an example. Once we register a lead, there is a ‘thank you' page that is displayed. What happens after that? Ordinarily, the thank you page says something predictable such as somebody will contact you, etc. But much more can be done.

Someone suggested that while the customer is on our thank you page, why not ask him to ‘like' our page. Then, while he ‘likes' our page, why not promote some relevant Slideshare presentation such as ‘10 Things to Do with Your Demat Account'.

Once we get a lead, our telecaller calls him within three minutes. The idea is-can we share some content and keep him engaged for the three minutes before he gets a call from us? We are the only ones who put in so much of effort into a lead that has already been captured and the humble ‘thank you' page is the starting point to create that deep engagement. Needless to add, we are able to orchestrate all this because of the tight integration between various marketing activities. All of this is possible only through technology.

How do you view the world of apps and its impact?

I would say that apps have made a decent enough impact till now, but there's potential to do much more. There's an interesting way to look at apps. The amount of engagement you can do is far higher in potential. Mobile is the best way to get the deepest engagement; far more than the PC because you don't roam around with one, the mobile is the closest to you always.

The starting point of this is that when the customer moved from the PC screen to the mobile one, you follow him with an app. That's mobile enablement and it was the first generation. The next one is about engagement which starts with notification, apps on the fly, data on the fly, and many more empowering features. This fundamentally changes the nature of the category. It aligns the product to a different purpose. Therefore, mobile enablement is only 25% of the game, the rest of the 75% is the far more exciting phase.

What about analytics?

If you do anything in digital and if you don't use analytics, you are wasting it away. Expect everything to be quantified. There is analytics about everything. It's all numbers, numbers, and numbers. CMOs have to get used to it. It's a fundamental change from looking at creatives to looking at numbers. Traditionally, marketing strategy presentations used to be one=fourths of data and three-fourths of creatives. The equation is now exactly the other way around. Marketing is now full of charts and tables.

CMOs now play with information like how efficient are we at getting leads, how long does it take to break even on leads, which kind of customer should I focus on, which of my customers are ready to transact and when. The instances of analytics is only going to increase, it will quadruple from what it is now. As the head of marketing, I spend a big chunk of my time on statistical analysis, studying correlations and causations, multivariate regressions, etc. A simple retention campaign is so data heavy, but one can show direct RoI. We are just in the initial phase of marketing technology, there's lot more to come. But it will change the roles of both the CMO and the CIO.