Moving from ‘how many?’ to ‘why?’
accurately reflects your brand’s positioning and represents the consumers’ needs and interests requires more than just automated analytics that focus on the “how many”; it demands the “why”. The why is what characterises audience perceptions, attitudes, needs and behaviours, and it is these that give purpose to your marketing and communications strategies.
Automated analytics, which are predominantly quantitative by nature, describe the “how many” in terms of number of followers, posts, mentions, shares, likes, reach, even positive and negative interactions via the integration of AI tools. These offer a basic overview of communications performance in near real time, highlighting the peaks and troughs over time. What they cannot identify is what is driving those changes in performance, nor do they offer insight into the Market research then completes the measurement loop by offering brands a holistic understanding of target consumers from a cognitive and emotional standpoint, so that you can shape products, experiences and campaigns that connect with them. Personalising the consumer experience through specific messaging that primes emotive connections and reciprocates the perceived needs of the consumer results in improved returns on your marketing spend.
An integrated approach, combining these methods, provides the most accurate insights you can have to date. To truly get value for money on your communications outreach and measurement programme, it’s imperative that you are specific in your objectives. A global or even regional measurement programme that is not tied to specific business objectives is simply a measurement of output, not impact.
The implementation of a communications measurement programme that provides such comprehensive insight has the advantage over ones that solely rely on quantitative metrics. Incorporating qualitative data provides another dimension to your target audience – and an understanding of the “why” that motivates an individual to take an action.