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Travel industry shows rest of pack how to leverage mobile data

The travel industry is setting itself apart from the pack in its ability to leverage mobile data to drive customer engagement, loyalty and satisfaction, according to a report from Forbes Insights and Turn.

Sixty-seven percent of travel executives say they have achieved competitive advantage in customer engagement and loyalty through data-driven marketing, with a big contribution from mobile, according to the report, ?Data Driven and Digitally Savvy: The Rise of the New Marketing Organization.? The results also show how integrating mobile data with other digital initiatives can increase customer loyalty, customer engagement and market growth.

 ?This report clearly shows that data is the lifeblood of today?s new marketing organization, and a fully integrated approach among digital initiatives ? big data, cloud, social and mobile ? is critical for success,? said Paul Alfieri, senior vice president of marketing for Turn. ?Mobile should not be seen as a standalone channel or initiative.? 

Gaining edge
Fifty-six percent of travel executives said data-driven marketing gave them an edge in new customers and 59 percent in customer satisfaction.

Traveler scans bus schedule in Antwerp.

Retail was another leader, with 55 percent of retail executives saying data-driven marketing helped them achieve competitive advantage in customer engagement/loyalty, 52 percent in new customers and 50 percent in customer satisfaction.

The energy industry was a laggard, with 30 percent in customer engagement/loyalty, 10 percent in new customers and 10 percent in customer satisfaction.

The survey was fielded in October 2014 and received 331 responses from senior executives. Sixty-four percent of respondents were vice presidents or directors, and 28 percent were C-level executives or senior vice presidents. 

Respondents hailed from marketing (26 percent), and another 26 percent focused on analytics. Industries represented in the survey included technology (21 percent), retail (18 percent), telecommunications (15 percent) and consumer packaged goods (10 percent). 

Other industries included advertising, automotive and banking. Close to half, 48 percent, came from companies with $1 billion or more in annual revenue, and another 16 percent had between $500 million and $1 billion in revenue.

A important takeaway from the report is that the leaders built organizations in which data flows consistently across mobile and all other channels, providing a comprehensive view of their marketing efforts.

They have experienced higher customer engagement and market growth as a result.

Organizations that are leaders in data-driven marketing report far higher levels of customer engagement and market growth than their laggard counterparts.
 
In fact, leaders are three times more likely than laggards to say they have achieved competitive advantage in customer engagement/loyalty (74 percent vs. 24 percent) and almost three times more likely to have increased revenues (55 percent vs. 20 percent). 

Mobile?s struggle for adoption stems partly from systemic issues, the report suggests.

While many organizations have some form of data-driven marketing in place, strategies are being implemented in piecemeal fashion, within siloed business units, preventing marketers from fully taking advantage of the resources that are available.

That finding underscores the often-uttered observation that effective data-driven marketing draws on resources from across the enterprise, not a single department. And without data, marketing is not based on customer intelligence.

Despite the plethora of data already out there, mobile is essential to data-driven marketing. 

Understanding audience
?A marketer?s first task is to understand her audience ? to look at the big picture, across channels and devices, of when, where and how consumers are engaging with her brand,? Mr.Alfieri said. ?Mobile is obviously a critical piece of that pie. 

United Airlines' iPhone app.

?The real challenge isn?t the quantity of data out there; it?s knowing what to do with it once you have it. 

?Marketers need to ask, once they have mobile data, how they can integrate it with other sources of information (e.g., third-party data, or data from retail or Web operations) about customers? needs and habits to deliver the most compelling marketing message possible for a given audience, whether that message is ultimately delivered on mobile or not,? he said.

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York.