The blog

Koen Pauwels is a distinguished marketing professor at Northeastern University and BI Oslo. His passion for data and analytics has led him on the road of research and experiments, which have let him discover new insights in marketing productivity, metrics and social media. Today, we can find his work in numerous marketing journals such as the Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science, Management Science and MIT Sloan Management Review. As an active member of the advisory board of The House of Marketing, we regularly have the privilege of discussing with Koen Pauwels on his knowledge and experience in topics such as big data and analytics, and also the econometric modeling of long-term marketing effects. We recently had the opportunity to ask him a few questions about data analytics and the role data takes or will take within marketing. Keeping all his insights for ourselves would have been selfish, so we are happy to share them with you! This article is the first part of the interview focused on the “WHAT”: What does ‘data analytics’ mean and what can marketers gain from it?

Koen Pauwels is a distinguished marketing professor at Northeastern University in Boston and BI Norwegian Business School. His passion for data and analytics has led him to the road of research and experiments, which have let him discover new insights in marketing productivity, metrics and social media.  “As a kid, I loved pouring over maps, hiking through nature and playing with my compass. Just like the mission in Star Trek, I wanted to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations... but then I realized that all new lands had been explored and I turned my attention to the new worlds of science...” Today, we can find his work in numerous marketing journals, such as Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Marketing Science and Management Science. Eager to share his insights, he has also authored a book on modeling markets and on using these insights to improve decisions: It’s not the Size of the Data, It’s How You Use it: Smarter Marketing with Analytics and Dashboards*. “Today, I still feel a bit of that explorer in me. I get to peer into an industry and ask challenging questions, then go out and unearth the answers, to go where no marketing professor has ever gone before.”

If I had to briefly describe myself, I’d say I’m a value-driven marketer and a positive thinker with a strong sense of responsibility. In my daily life, I try to reduce my ecological footprint in incremental steps. I strongly believe that changing something starts with changing your behavior and that changing your behavior starts with small changes to your habits. So instead of turning into vegetarians overnight, my boyfriend and I gradually adapted our eating habits. At the very start, we cooked a few vegetarian dishes a week and ordered meatless courses in restaurants. Those changes eased the full transition to a vegetarian diet. This year we are focused on eating seasonally and reducing our use of plastic.

In the first article of the VoiceTech series: ‘Voice technology: more than a buzzword?’  the basics of this new and exciting technology were discussed. In the second article, ‘Why you should start with Voice Commerce today’, we took a deeper dive into Voice Commerce and elaborated on why you should start with it today. In this third and last article in our voice technology series we will explore the ‘how to’ side of voice technology and guide you through the first steps you can take to start seizing the opportunities that this exciting technology brings to the table. But let’s first take a step back and look at the bigger picture, and how can we do this better than with a short history class?

According to our e-commerce barometer, 27% more e-commerce websites were launched in 2017 compared to the year before. Transaction numbers increased by 39%, which equals over 60 million transactions. Those numbers indicate e-commerce in Belgium is on the rise, regardless of company size. Surfing along on the wave, Jacqmotte, a brand of Dutch coffee and tea company Jacobs Douwe Egberts (JDE), joined the online retail market by launching their own webshop for a new freshly roasted coffee range.

In the first article of the VoiceTech series: ‘Voice technology: more than a buzzword?’ the basics of this new and exciting technology were discussed. In this second article, we go one step further and dive into the commercialization possibilities. Do consumers already buy goods or services via their Smart Speaker? And if so, how is their purchasing behavior? Should you choose to be present on Amazon’s or Google’s ecosystem? Or both?

‘Voice-activated technology goes mainstream’, headlines Chief Marketer. ‘There is no denying that voice is the future’, claims PWC. ‘Voice Technology is transforming our lives and businesses’, announces Forbes. ‘Voice Tech is taking over the world’, according to Huffington Post. Unless you've lived on another planet for the past year, there is no way you could have missed the hype around voice technology. Voice assistants are everywhere. Google already announced in 2016 that 20 percent of all searches have a voice intent. This is a number that keeps on growing. According to ComScore, 50% of searches will be done without a screen by 2020. Is this true? Should you be excited? Or worried? Is it the next big revolution or is it just another buzzword, soon to be forgotten? Let’s find out.

Messer Group is a producer and distributor of industrial gases with a complex distribution model which combines both direct deliveries and deliveries through a depot network. The chemical company has always been very sales oriented, but in recent years embraced the idea that marketing could be a vital support for sales, especially when it comes to the generation, nurturing and qualification of leads. In June 2017, they contacted us to help them with the implementation of Marketing Automation with the ultimate aim of going from 90% to 50% sales dependency by 2020/2025.

New technologies such as Artificial Senses and Virtual Reality are here to stay, and they will change our world dramatically. According to Ray kurzweil, leading innovator and futurist, "the pace of change will be so astonishingly quick that we won't be able to keep up, unless we enhance our own intelligence by merging with the intelligent machines we are creating”. Inspired by his visit to SuperNova, THoMers Florence and Laetitia listed 5 trends and technologies to watch. Meet Artificial Senses (AS) While it’s currently all about Artificial Intelligence (AI), cyborg Neil Harbisson is convinced that our focus will soon shift towards Artificial Senses (AS). The term ‘cyborg’ refers to a human being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. Born color-blind, Neil Harbisson implanted an antenna in his head which allows him to hear colors, including colors invisible to the human eye. The antenna connected to his brain creates an extra, artificial sense. The main difference between AS and AI is the place where the intelligence is created. While Artificial Intelligence is ‘intelligence created by machines’, the knowledge and intelligence as a result of Artificial Senses is created in your own brain, AS just gives your brain additional input. In other words, it creates a ‘revealed reality’. Harbisson believes that in the future we will change ourselves instead of changing the world. It will be normal to add and change body parts. When it’s too hot, we’ll lower our temperature, when it’s too dark we’ll light a part of our body. What’s the first feature you’d add? Data is the new world currency  There is no doubt that data has become one of the most valuable resources for companies worldwide. Biz Stone illustrates the growing importance of data by describing it as “the new world currency”. Think about blockchain technology for example: by investing in cryptocurrencies, our money is transformed into data, while at the same time, our data has become our money, as it has gained the ability to create and exchange economic value. Next to the banking industry, data is impacting and will certainly impact other industries as well. According to Jorg Snoeck, founder of the retail communication and network platform Retail Detail, the retail landscape of the future will be shaped by big data and artificial intelligence.  The future is conversational Enhanced by new types of devices, our daily lives will be more and more conversational… with machines. As half of the searches will be performed by voice by 2020, it is no surprise that the sales and consequently the use of smart speakers such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home is on the rise. Voice assistance will increasingly become part of our lives, simplifying everyday activities and tasks. Although smart speakers are currently primarily used to carry out basic tasks such as putting on music or checking the weather forecast, the application of these devices will be extended considerably. According to Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, even the future of social media is conversational, and voice is just another User Interface. Soon our smartphone will be replaced by almost invisible wearables. Think about a mini-accessory in your ear or attached to your hand. Good bye to the panic you felt when you thought you’d lost your smartphone once again. A permanent device inside your body is the logical next step - Neil Harbisson’s world is closer than you might think. And what if we not only connect the device but also our brain to the cloud? Will the next Twitter user interface be designed for voice, and the one after that for 'thoughts'? Don’t ignore the dark side of technology Start thinking about the potential negative consequences of new technologies and anticipate them. New technologies are usually created with good intentions, but it’s quite likely that they will give rise to undesirable results too. Solutions today will be the cause of problems in the future. If you wonder what this might look like, watch the Netflix series ‘Black Mirror’ about current and future technologies and how they influence our reality. The testimony of Biz Stone, fuels this concern. He said that Twitter has been regarded as a ‘telephone company’ for too long: responsible for the platform but not for the content. When founding Twitter, they probably didn’t think about hate speech or state-sponsored trolling characterizing their platform. They changed their position and are actively working on solutions (for example, removing fake accounts) to increase the quality and collective health of the public conversation. Jane McGonigal believes that anticipating the negative consequences of new technologies is not only the responsibility of the people who create it, it’s the responsibility of the ones using and supporting these technologies too. Jane McGonigal also has an interesting idea on how to find solutions: by playing games. People playing games create a massive ‘collective intelligence’ that we need to use to solve future problems. This is because fake videos (the next wave of disinformation) and ever available facial recognition are almost here! When it comes to innovation, it’s all about timing Innovation primarily starts with a good idea. Biz Stone, was asked how he makes the distinction between good and bad ideas. He stated that “one cannot recognize good ideas; one must be emotionally involved to be able to bring them to life and make them successful”. However, in addition to that, innovation is about more than just ideas. According to Ray Kurzweil the most important aspect that makes a successful innovator is timing. Let’s take Airbnb as an example. Even though the platform was launched in the middle of an international financial crisis, it was still able to disrupt the housing market in 2008. As people were desperately looking for alternative revenues, Airbnb turned a threat into an opportunity and now rents out millions of rooms every night. So next to your business model, team and funding, innovation is really about being at the right place at the right moment. Today, new technologies may seem to be something far away, not transforming your business immediately, but tomorrow they will. So, force yourself to keep up with the latest trends and technologies, it’s definitely worth the effort!

For this year’s ‘Weekend van de Klant/du Client’, a handful of grateful THoMers came up with a message we can’t wait to share with you. We hope this one makes you smile and thanks a million for achieving great marketing results together! Now… time to sit back and hit play: