When a company sells directly to customers who use their products, they can get a wealth of information about who buys, when they buy and how much.
But what about companies that don't get to sell directly to consumers, but must rely on stores and retail chains to give them information?
How do they get retail on board with sharing data that can really make a difference?
At recent SAS dinner in Dallas, Sri Rajagopalan , director of Pepsi Co's Analytics, Business Intelligence and Technology Innovation team, said that marketers in the beverage space often generate reports to help convince retailers to give them more shelf space. But Rajagopalan said he used a better tactic, by creating analytical reports for his partners that provided valuable data they could put to work in the store - not just about Pepsi products.
For example, at a well known drugstore chain, for instance, marketers were puzzling over why female shoppers seemed to going over to the competitor chain. Rajagopalan volunteered to help find the answer. Using customer segmentation and transactional basket analysis Rajagopalan and his team were able to identify the key factor. The competitor had invested heavily in bringing in health, beauty and cosmetics products and displays in to their stores - a draw for the female shoppers, who made other buys once inside the store. The reports helped out the partner, and help solidify Rajagopalan's relationship with the retailer.
In a similar vein. Rajogopalan advised analytics professionals to create buy-in for analytics inside their companies, by finding business leaders who were able to identify "challenges looking for solutions." "You can't do it by yourself," Rajagopalan said. "You need to get that buy in. and you need to be able to demonstrate, at least predict, the outcome early own . Waiting ten years, is not soon enough."
Another panelist, Kenny Mercado, the divison senior vice president overseeing Smart Grid deployment, at CenterPoint Energy, said that analytics will be at the heart of the utilities move to the digital environment. "We're using analytics to transform the company," Mercado said.
But analytics is already being used at CenterPoint - formerly known as Houston Power and Light - to help the ensure reliable delivery to over two million metered customers.
Analytics has also helped the utility quickly identify and confront "meter thieves" - those who tamper with meters in order to avoid paying. In the old system, meter readers would go out and regular routes and check meters and then send back the information. Under the new system, analytics helps CenterPoint identify where there is unusual patterns of use of power and zero in on the culprit.
But what about companies that don't get to sell directly to consumers, but must rely on stores and retail chains to give them information?
How do they get retail on board with sharing data that can really make a difference?
At recent SAS dinner in Dallas, Sri Rajagopalan , director of Pepsi Co's Analytics, Business Intelligence and Technology Innovation team, said that marketers in the beverage space often generate reports to help convince retailers to give them more shelf space. But Rajagopalan said he used a better tactic, by creating analytical reports for his partners that provided valuable data they could put to work in the store - not just about Pepsi products.
For example, at a well known drugstore chain, for instance, marketers were puzzling over why female shoppers seemed to going over to the competitor chain. Rajagopalan volunteered to help find the answer. Using customer segmentation and transactional basket analysis Rajagopalan and his team were able to identify the key factor. The competitor had invested heavily in bringing in health, beauty and cosmetics products and displays in to their stores - a draw for the female shoppers, who made other buys once inside the store. The reports helped out the partner, and help solidify Rajagopalan's relationship with the retailer.
In a similar vein. Rajogopalan advised analytics professionals to create buy-in for analytics inside their companies, by finding business leaders who were able to identify "challenges looking for solutions." "You can't do it by yourself," Rajagopalan said. "You need to get that buy in. and you need to be able to demonstrate, at least predict, the outcome early own . Waiting ten years, is not soon enough."
Another panelist, Kenny Mercado, the divison senior vice president overseeing Smart Grid deployment, at CenterPoint Energy, said that analytics will be at the heart of the utilities move to the digital environment. "We're using analytics to transform the company," Mercado said.
But analytics is already being used at CenterPoint - formerly known as Houston Power and Light - to help the ensure reliable delivery to over two million metered customers.
Analytics has also helped the utility quickly identify and confront "meter thieves" - those who tamper with meters in order to avoid paying. In the old system, meter readers would go out and regular routes and check meters and then send back the information. Under the new system, analytics helps CenterPoint identify where there is unusual patterns of use of power and zero in on the culprit.
