data basics; data management: Mountains to Mine

American Demographics, August, 2000

New technologies turn information overload into information with an edge.

Information: The foundation of every sale, the guts behind every deal. But in this oh so overwhelming Information Age, it's all too easy to be buried, burdened, and burned out by data overload. There's no shortage of information, but, left unmanaged, it won't do much but collect dust.

Companies spend untold hours and dollars collecting detailed information about their customers and competitors in an effort to better understand their needs and expectations. Yet for many businesses, much of that valuable information goes to waste, simply because it takes too much time and energy to dig through the mounds of paper reports assembled by field researchers and salesmen. But today, faster, more organized, and more accurate technologies are allowing companies to drill deeper into their rich databases and helping them to more easily garner the information they need to develop detailed business plans in a pinch.

In fact, Forrester Research reports that 52 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies plan to use data mining to help determine marketing strategy in 2001, up from 18 percent in 1999. Forty-eight percent plan to use data mining to improve customer service, up from 16 percent in 1999. Forrester also found that those firms already utilizing mining techniques say their biggest gains occur when data mining is incorporated into their day-to-day operations. "By embedding data mining into applications, users can tap into the insight at the click of a button," says Forrester analyst Frank Gillett.

In this article, we'll look at three products that have the potential to help marketers harness consumer data and gain a competitive edge. One puts data collection literally in the palm of your hand. Another lets the sales force dial up to loads of data. And a third gives retailers the big picture in just a few clicks.

Handheld Help

When Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. evaluated its Richmond, Virginia market a year ago, it was surprised at the popularity of malt liquor in the region. The news meant the brewer's market managers would have to ask retailers a series of questions about the malt category, something they weren't prepared to do. The company's surveys - covering everything from product quality, placement, and pricing, to how well retailers felt they were being serviced by their wholesalers - grouped all malt liquors in one category, with no room for listing specific brands or prices. But this market called out for a store-by-store breakdown.

It seems simple enough - just add a few questions - but with numerous representatives in the field and the need to standardize the survey, adding those questions could have translated into costly delays. However, by using a new product called MobileLink, from San Jose, California-based software maker Casio Soft Inc., Anheuser-Busch's field reps now had the ability to instantly add a form with more detailed questions.

Using MobileLink, reps access surveys through handheld Hewlett-Packard Jornada computers and the data is inserted using a stylus pen, so the interface is as familiar as pen to paper. The technology also allows for bar-code scanning and spreadsheet entry. The data is transmitted directly to the home office, where it can be aggregated and acted upon. Other benefits, says Jim Willis, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing for Casio Soft: Savings in paper, fax, phone, and postage costs; and the ability to keep track of field reps' hours.

But the real beauty of the system, according to Richard Sleight, Anheuser-Busch's manager of strategic selling, is how it standardizes previously scattershot methods of collecting and storing data. That, and how quickly it lets the company respond to consumer trends and competitive threats. "It used to be a two, three month delay before we could make up a report and take action," he says. "Now we can do it in a day." By speeding up how it collects proprietary data about its own products, as well as its competitors', the company can rely less on the canned data it gets from other sources. That means more timely and specific responses and recommendations to its wholesalers and retailers.

For example, let's say a survey shows that certain products flew off the shelves in a couple of locations. Anheuser-Busch could know that information within days of doing the survey and act promptly to reallocate its product lineup, giving more space to the popular brands without increasing its total shelf space.

The St. Louis beermaker adopted MobileLink about two and a half years ago, after having used other technologies for about two years. And before that? Good, old pen and paper - and manual input. Now Sleight estimates the company has cut the time needed to conduct surveys by 36 percent. Before distributing the handheld PCs, the company accrued about 516 man-hours to do a single survey in one region; that's now down to 328 hours. Company wide, Sleight estimates savings of about 8,000 man-hours a year. Figuring an average cost of $65 an hour, that's a savings of more than $500,000 a year. (The MobileLink system can cost from $75,000 to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on the number of users.)