WHITE PAPER

Turning Customer Data into Analytical

Marketing Fuel
How to Use Analytically Driven Customer Insight for Extraordinary
Competitive Advantage
 TURNING CUSTOMER DATA INTO ANALYTICAL MARKETING FUEL

Table of Contents

Foreword by Thomas H. Davenport..................................................................ii

Executive Summary . .......................................................................................1
The Brave New World of Marketing.................................................................1
The Data Explosion ......................................................................................1
The Rapid Power Shift to Consumers...........................................................2
What These Trends Mean for Marketers Like You.........................................2
The Real Value of Analytically Driven Customer Insight.................................3
Moving Beyond Marketing and Across the Enterprise..................................4
An Evolutionary Process: Moving Toward Analytically Driven Marketing.....4
Showcasing the Value: Case Studies...............................................................7
A Multichannel Retailer: Best Buy................................................................8
A Consumer Brand Marketer: Transitions Optical Inc....................................8
A Service Provider: Absa Bank ....................................................................9
Lessons Learned...........................................................................................9
Enabling the Vision: The Need for an Integrated Technology Platform........10
SAS® Solutions Can Help................................................................................10
About SAS.......................................................................................................11

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Foreword by Thomas H. Davenport

As discussed in this paper, there is a new game that virtually all marketers must
eventually embrace if they’re going to be successful. Analytics was once just the
province of a few direct marketers and market researchers, but now the entire field of
marketing is being transformed by this capability. Whether the focus is consumer or
industrial marketing, and whether the customer channel involves a sales call, contact
with a call center, a Web click, or an e-mail, marketing is becoming increasingly
analytical. There is no longer any excuse for not knowing whether your advertising or
your promotions are working. It is possible to test and analyze any campaign or any
change in how you go to market with analytics.

This is, of course, a major change in culture for many marketers. It’s probably safe
to say that many people who chose marketing as a career did not do so because
they loved data and statistics. Therefore, many marketers will need considerable
retraining and reorientation for this new world. It isn’t that the old creative and
intuitive capabilities will go away, but they will have to be supplemented by a new
set of analytical skills. Of course the best marketers will continue to be those that
have an intuitive and empathetic understanding of customers, but that cannot be
the only perspective. It must be complemented by empirical, quantitative analyses
of the behaviors customers actually exhibit and the impact of marketing activities
on those behaviors. It is an exciting time for the field, and one in which careers and
reputations of marketers will be rebuilt or newly established. In other words, it’s a
great time to be in marketing, but only if you embrace analytics.

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Executive Summary

Today’s marketing executives are witnessing a watershed moment in history: the

convergence of unprecedented access to customer data and the emergence
of highly empowered customers who demand highly personalized offers and
service. It’s a perfect storm of sorts – a “new normal” in which companies can
survive and even thrive if they can turn customer data into insight, use it to align
around their customers and build trust-based relationships with them. Given
the scale and speed of the trends affecting marketing today, one thing is clear:
businesses that fail to strategically leverage analytically driven customer insight
will gradually become obsolete over time.

Let’s take a closer look at why – and what you can do to evolve your marketing organ­
ization’s ability to turn data into customer insight, and insight into competitive advantage.

The Brave New World of Marketing

There are two dominant trends transforming the business of marketing:

1) the incredible explosion of data being created by governments, businesses
and consumers; and 2) the shift in power from companies to consumers that’s
been driven by the Internet.

The Data Explosion

The world contains an unimaginably massive amount of digital data today – and
it’s increasing tenfold every 10 years.1 As data becomes more abundant, the
■ Amazon’s Andreas Weigend
challenge is not finding information, but rather quickly pinpointing the relevant
bits needed to make informed, timely decisions. Many companies are jumping on describes this trend another way:
the data bandwagon, collecting, storing and linking massive amounts of data. “In 2009, more data will be
(Think Wal-Mart, which handles over 1 million customer transactions every hour, generated by individuals than
feeding databases estimated at 2.5 petabytes, which is equal to 167 times the
in the entire history of mankind
number of books in the US Library of Congress.2)
through 2008.”3
But perhaps even more importantly, customers are generating massive amounts
of net-new digital information – whether it’s through postings on Facebook and
Twitter, “data exhaust” created as website visitors click through Web pages, data
collected by cookies and other opt-in Web tools, product reviews and blogs
written by users, and more. This kind of data is growing exponentially in both
size and in potential strategic value to marketers who need to engage in a 1-to-1
manner with these consumers, as it can provide a direct window into their wants,
needs, preferences, interests and attitudes, and more.

1 “Data, Data Everywhere,” The Economist (February 25, 2010). http://www.economist.com.

2 Ibid.
3 Weigand, Andreas, “The Social Data Revolution(s),” Now, New, Next, May 20, 2009
(http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/05/the-social-data-revolution.html).

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The Rapid Power Shift to Consumers

Over the past few years, there’s been an inexorable power shift to consumers. For
example, comparison shopping sites such as Pricegrabber.com enable buyers to
instantly find lowest-cost vendors for specific items in seconds. Cameras in mobile
phones can even scan barcodes in stores and enable users to comparison shop
at local stores in seconds. They can also avoid communications they don’t want to
receive – for example, by using DVRs to bypass commercials.

Equally significant, with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, customers can share
their opinions online and influence tens of millions of people to buy from you – or
not. Jaded by traditional marketing and advertising, most are leveraging customer
reviews on sites such as Amazon.com to decide what to purchase and from whom;
according to an A.C. Nielson Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 Internet
consumers, people now trust recommendations and opinions from real friends and
virtual strangers the most.4

Today’s customers also demand product and service information that’s personally
relevant, timely and delivered through their preferred channels, as well as interactive
online relationships. This means that you now need to manage the four P’s of
marketing on an individual, 1-to-1 level. Even after a sale is made, today’s customers
expect that all future interactions – such as handling a query, scheduling a repair or
resolving a billing issue – will be handled in a customer-centric manner.

What These Trends Mean for Marketers Like You

So as a marketing executive, what does all of this mean to you? What you’re
witnessing is a breakdown of the traditional mass marketing model – and the
establishment of a revolutionary, 1-to-1 marketing model that’s customer-centered
and personalized. As noted by independent research firm Forrester Research Inc.,
“Only 13% of consumers say that the ads they see are relevant to their wants and
needs, and even fewer find direct mail and e-mail marketing relevant. Consumers
have had enough of marketing, and more than three-quarters say they want
companies to let them decide how a company can communicate with them.”5

In other words, consumers want to be in the driver’s seat. They also expect a
consistent experience with a company across channels.6 And, they want a dialogue
with the companies – one that clearly demonstrates employees take into account
what the business already knows about them. To do this, you need to leverage the
customer data explosion for competitive advantage. Rather than just using the same
syndicated data available to your competitors, you need to create unique analytical
insight about customers and prospects based on what they are buying, where,
how they use your website, their social media interactions and more – and tailor
interactions based on this insight.

4“Global Advertising: Consumers Trust Real Friends and Virtual Strangers the Most,” A.C. Nielson Global
Online Consumer Survey, April 2009.
5 Frankland, David, “The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence,” Forrester Research Inc., October
16, 2009.
6 Ibid.

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The foundation for 1-to-1 marketing is development of a large reservoir of unique,

analytically driven insight about each customer. Once this is in place, you can
use it to foster engaging customer dialogues across channels and learn from these
interactions to make improvements in the future. More specifically, this involves:

• Capturing detailed customer information across the enterprise and merging it with
demographic and other data for a complete customer view.

• Analyzing this information to generate new, microlevel insight unique to your

business.

• Using this insight to engage your customers in relevant and effective dialogues,
which enables you to create differentiating customer experiences that emphasize
building long-term relationships over individual transactions.

• Managing this process with key performance indicators (KPIs) that help you
improve how you engage with the customer.

The Real Value of Analytically Driven Customer Insight

Your success is a function of the quality of your customer data and insight and
how you choose to leverage customer data to drive better decision making, The Next-Generation CMO Will
customer-centered marketing and personalized experiences. By turning data into Come from Customer Intelligence
trusted, analytically driven customer insight, you can harness the data explosion for As chief marketing officers (CMOs)
competitive advantage – for example, by engaging empowered customers through “struggle with more empowered
customer-centered products, services and experiences. The impact of getting this customers who have limited
right is not only more profitable or loyal customers, but increased likelihood of turning tolerance for marketing and face
them into advocates for your business or organization through Web 2.0 technologies increased demand for marketing
and social media – arguably one of the most effective marketing channels today. accountability, firms will elevate
Customer Intelligence within their
According to Forrester, marketing executives play a vital role in helping companies organizations and use it as a
evolve to a more mature use of analytically driven customer insight (see sidebar). The competitive weapon. Customer
CMO of the future will, for example, focus on data-driven marketing. This means Intelligence will move to the front of
that rather than making key decisions regarding product, price, place (distribution) the room, and Forrester believes that
and promotion (the four P’s of marketing) based on gut instinct and groupthink, you the next-generation CMO will evolve
can make fact-based decisions based on trusted, analytically driven insight. Equally from a Customer Intelligence role –
important, you can develop unique customer insight and use it to create customer- we’re already seeing it at companies
centric, cross-channel strategies. Armed with the right analytical insight, you can such as First Tennessee Bank, Gap,
make fact-based decisions about the processes and customer interactions that and Harrah’s Entertainment.”7
ultimately result in revenues and profits. When all customer interactions are driven by
customer insight, you can create consistent, differentiating experiences that increase
customer retention and long-term value, free your company from the effects of
commoditization and price wars, and motivate customers to be advocates for your
business or organization with friends, family and strangers through social media.

7 Ibid.

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Moving Beyond Marketing and Across the Enterprise

About Tom Davenport, President’s
Chair in Information Technology
According to Tom Davenport, world-renowned thought leader and co-author of and Management, Babson College
Competing on Analytics, the larger goal is to move beyond instinct- and history-
Tom Davenport’s books and
driven marketing to analytically driven marketing, whereby all business decisions
articles on business process
are driven by analytics. In his opinion, “becoming more analytical is not solely the
re-engineering, knowledge
responsibility of a manager: it’s an essential concern for the entire organization.”8
management, attention
Why? Because “Putting analytics to work can help your managers and employees
management, knowledge worker
make better decisions, and help your organization perform better.”9 Even if your
productivity and analytical
management team isn’t interested in becoming an “analytic competitor,” he notes
competition helped to establish
that “We still urge companies, over time, to move toward a mentality and strategy of
each of those business ideas.
competing on analytics – we think that’s where the greatest benefits lie. But those
He is the author or co-author of
who seek a more incremental approach can still be more analytical, even if primarily
nine books for Harvard Business
competing on other factors, such as product innovation, customer relationships,
Press, most recently Competing
operational excellence, and so forth.”10
on Analytics: The New Science of
Winning (2007) and Analytics at
Forrester envisions something similar, noting that “In most mature firms, the
Work: Smarter Decisions, Better
Customer Intelligence function becomes a command center for the business –
Results (2010). Davenport has
serving up actionable information as the fuel that drives multi-channel customer
also written 15 articles for Harvard
communications, product development, strategic planning and even operations.”11
Business Review.

Davenport has an extensive

background in research and has
An Evolutionary Process: led research centers at Ernst &
Moving Toward Analytically Driven Marketing Young, McKinsey & Company, CSC
Index and the Accenture Institute
of Strategic Change. Davenport
According to Davenport, most businesses are far from strategic users of customer
holds a BA in sociology from Trinity
data. He writes:
University and an MA and PhD in
sociology from Harvard University.
Most companies today have massive amounts of data at their disposal.
For more information, visit:
The data may come from transaction-oriented applications such as ERP
(enterprise resource planning) systems from software vendors such as SAP and • Tom Davenport’s website at
Oracle, scanner data in retail environments, customer loyalty programs, financial www.tomdavenport.com.
transactions, or clickstream data from customer web activity. But, what do they • The International Institute for
do with all this information? Not nearly enough … They collect and Analytics (IIA), dedicated to the
store much data, but they don’t use it effectively. They have information, advancement of analytics in
and they make decisions, but they don’t analyze the information to inform everyday business practices:
their decision-making.12 www.iianalytics.com.

8 Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Analytics at Work: Smarter
Decisions, Better Results by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison (2010).
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.
11 Frankland, David, “The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence,” Forrester Research Inc.,
October 16, 2009.
12 Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Analytics at Work: Smarter
Decisions, Better Results by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison (2010).

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Sound familiar? You’re not alone. The question is, then, how can you evolve
your organization’s use of customer data and analytics for competitive marketing
advantage? Davenport provides a useful five-stage model of progress (which is
described more fully in his book Competing on Analytics) to help you identify where
your business stands relative to others – and point you to what to strive for next:

• Stage 1: Analytically impaired – The organization lacks one or several of the

prerequisites for serious analytical work, such as data, analytical skills or senior
management interest.

• Stage 2: Localized analytics – There are pockets of analytical activity within the
organization, but they are not coordinated or focused on strategic targets.

• Stage 3: Analytical aspirations – The organization envisions a more analytical

future, has established analytical capabilities, and has a few significant initiatives
under way, but progress is slow – often because some critical factor has been too
difficult to implement.

• Stage 4: Analytical companies – The organization has the needed human and
technological resources, applies analytics regularly and realizes benefits across
the business. But, its strategic focus is not grounded in analytics, and it hasn’t
turned analytics to competitive advantage.

• Stage 5: Analytical competitors – The organization routinely uses analytics

as a distinctive business capability. It takes an enterprisewide approach, has
committed and involved leadership and has achieved large-scale results. It
portrays itself both internally and externally as an analytical competitor.13

It’s important to note that analytical competitors, as defined by Davenport, learn

how to use insight about individuals – and people like them – to answer fundamental
business decisions, such as where to place new stores, what products to carry, how
to manage reserve requirements and more. They go on to use analytics to make
enterprise-level decisions that go well beyond marketing.

To help you evolve your organization over time, Davenport complements these
stages with an action plan for evolving your business from one stage to the next.

Table 1: Evolving Step by Step

From Stage 1 From Stage 2 From Stage 3 From Stage 4

Analytically Impaired to
Stage 2 Localized Analytics
Gain mastery over local data of
importance, including building functional
data marts.
Localized Analytics to
Stage 3 Analytical Aspirations
Build enterprise consensus around some
analytical targets and their data needs.
Build some domain data warehouses
(e.g., customer) and corresponding
analytical expertise. Motivate and reward
cross-functional data contributions and
management.
Analytical Aspirations to
Stage 4 Analytical Companies
Build enterprise data warehouses
and integrate external data. Engage
senior executives in EDW plans and
management. Monitor emerging data
sources.
Analytical Companies to
Stage 5 Analytical Competitors
Educate and engage senior executives
in the competitive potential of analytical
data. Exploit unique data. Establish
strong data governance, especially
stewardship. Form a BICC (Business
Intelligence Competency Center) if you
don’t have one yet.

Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Analytics at Work: Smarter
Decisions, Better Results by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison (2010).

13 Ibid.

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Forrester Research provides another useful model that complements Davenport’s

stages of maturity – a three-stage Customer Intelligence Maturity Model that
highlights how business models evolve as companies become more strategic users
of customer intelligence (see Figure 1). Forrester’s research in this area found that
despite widespread existence of customer intelligence functions within businesses
today, their overall customer intelligence “quotient” varies considerably. Of the 301
customer intelligence professionals who participated in Forrester’s survey, 54 percent
were in the functional intelligence stage, 34 percent were in the marketing intelligence
stage and 12 percent had achieved the strategic intelligence stage.14

Figure 1: Forrester’s Customer Intelligence Maturity Model (Source: The Intelligent

Approach to Customer Intelligence. Forrester Research. October 16, 2009).

14 Frankland, David, “The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence,” Forrester Research Inc.,
October 16, 2009.

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Showcasing the Value: Case Studies

■ “Wal-Mart is famous for sharing
Regardless of the type of business model under which your company operates,
data with its suppliers, with the
analytically driven customer insight can play a vital role in making it more competitive
in the short and long term. Let’s look at how this works by considering three common expectation that suppliers will use
business models: the information to lower prices
• A multichannel retailer. and increase sales in partnership
with the retailer. According to a
• A consumer brand marketer.
2006 Accenture study, 24 percent
• A service provider. of organizations had such direct
While businesses operating under these models have different needs, challenges and linkages with customers and
ways to access consumer data, the following case studies – all based on Davenport’s 15 percent had them with suppliers.
work – demonstrate that all can leverage customer insight to make better decisions, A company that is committed to
engage with customers in ways that build trust and compete more effectively.
helping its customers and suppliers
make better decisions will have
Three Common Business Models Defined from a Marketing Perspective
to share not only data, but also
A multichannel retailer: Retailers resell products developed by consumer
products companies, so your business controls customer interactions – but not analytics and analytical expertise, to
product development and wholesale pricing. To optimize customer interactions, create their “extended enterprise.””15
your focus is on building store loyalty – not brand loyalty – by creating store
brands and unique shopping experiences that are meaningful and differentiated
for customers. You can generate unique customer insight by collecting and
analyzing point-of-sale data, loyalty card data and more – insight that allows you
to optimally tailor products, offers and service levels for each individual.

A consumer brand marketer: If you work for a consumer products

manufacturer, your business controls the development and wholesale pricing
of your products – but you don’t control customer interactions at the point of
sale. So you have little customer data and insight into who is buying goods
and where, but lots of data regarding wholesale orders, shipment dates, sales
volumes and more. You can gain customer insight by looking at blogs and
tweets, creating websites that capture customer mind share, and offering loyalty
programs. These communication vehicles help your business and its brands
become, and stay, relevant to consumers.

A service provider: If your business is a service provider, you are in the unique
position of having full control over products, pricing, marketing and customer
interactions across channels. This also means that you can collect nearly
unlimited data about individual consumers, analyze it and turn it into strategic
insight for engaging effectively with customers in a 1-to-1 manner.

15 Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Analytics at Work: Smarter
Decisions, Better Results by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison (2010).

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A Multichannel Retailer: Best Buy

■ “The CEO [Terry Leahy] of the
As a retailer, Best Buy, the FORTUNE 100 consumer electronics retailer, is a good European-based grocery retailer
example of how a business that controls the customer interface, but not the Tesco says that the mission of the
products that it sells, can leverage analytically driven customer insight. company is to earn and grow the
lifetime loyalty of its customers.
The company has made analytics a critical component of how it works and
competes ever since 1997, when it embarked on a two-year “scientific retailing” Their core aim, he says, is “to
initiative that led to a major financial turnaround. In 2004, former CEO Brad Anderson understand customers better than
began to emphasize “customer-centricity” as a means of maintaining the company’s anyone.” Having more information
growth trajectory. By 2006, it was clear that the company’s future lay in building an
about customers is one side of the
enterprisewide analytical capability to drive data and decision making to individual
stores where employees are closest to their customers. Tesco story, but Leahy notes that
information benefits customers as
The team developed a system that would give stores and functional groups access well. “[Access to information] helps
to data-driven insights about their customers for the first time and enable them
retailers know much more about
to integrate fact-based decisions into their daily business routines. It would also
create a new, enterprisewide culture of analytics, disseminating and revitalizing the
what their customers want and think.
headquarters’ analytical focus. The team then defined performance metrics to be But it also gives customers a very
tracked in a way that best reflected Best Buy’s commitment to customer-centricity. powerful tool. They can compare
prices and buy online at the click of
As operations across the enterprise embraced their new analytical capabilities,
a mouse. They can look at a retailer’s
success stories began to emerge. For example, Best Buy was able to determine
through analysis of its RewardZone loyalty program member data that its best ethical or environmental policies and
customers represented only 7 percent of total customers, but were responsible for find out what is being said about
43 percent of its sales. It then segmented its stores to focus on the needs of these them anywhere in the world.” Tesco’s
customers in an extensive customer-centricity initiative. In addition, store managers
visionary target is world-class
began to use data-driven insights to review business practices and to seize new
opportunities.16 customer knowledge.”17

A Consumer Brand Marketer: Transitions Optical Inc.

Transitions Optical manufactures photochromatic lenses that darken in bright light ■ “Consumer packaged goods
and sells its products through retail stores. Since Transitions sells its products to
companies often don’t know their
glasses manufacturers and optical labs, it has no direct contact with consumers.
That meant no consumer data to judge the effectiveness of marketing programs. customers, but Coca-Cola has
developed a relationship with
In 2002, Transitions executives authorized the creation of a customer data warehouse, (mostly young) customers through
a process that would take more than six years. It meant the gathering of customer
the MyCokeRewards.com website
data from multiple customers and channel partners. The data arrived in 30 different
information formats, on such media as paper printouts, e-mail and even paper that the company believes has
napkins. Transitions then worked with an external consultant to assess how effectively increased its sales and allowed it to
its marketing dollars were being spent. It embarked upon a “marketing mix analysis” market to consumers as individuals.
to determine how well different marketing programs were working, and which channels
The site attracts almost 300,000
to the customer were more effective. Maria Zabetakis, the Director of Americas
visitors a day – up 13,000% from
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
2007 to 2008.”18
18 Ibid.
 TURNING CUSTOMER DATA INTO ANALYTICAL MARKETING FUEL

Information Technology, says the data and analyses have been very helpful in supporting
marketing decisions. “We can now accurately predict what kinds of ad campaigns will ■ “A top 10 US bank with over
generate what levels of lift for what customer segments. Our management team is very 3,000 branches found it nearly
analytically savvy, and we’re firm believers in business intelligence. But we couldn’t have doubled the balance per customer
done this without compiling data on our customers’ customers.”19 interaction by using collaboration-
based analytic technology when
dealing with customers. First
A Service Provider: Absa Bank year profitability per interaction
increased by 75% after taking
As a bank, Absa is responsible for the products it creates, all service delivery into account the additional value
channels and all customer interactions. Therefore, it provides an excellent example of provided to the customers by the
how customer analytics can be used to improve all of these areas of operations and bank. Sales productivity of front-
the resulting customer experience. line bank staff also increased by
almost 100% in terms of balances
Absa Bank established its information management (IM) group in 2001, and sold per hour.”21
was initially focused on customer information. David Donkin, the first head of
the IM group, explained the group’s mission: allow information- and knowledge-
based strategy formulation and decision making, and leverage information to
improve business performance. These are at the heart of what it takes to make an ■ “Capital One ... made extensive
organization more analytical. use of consumer credit scores
for extending credit and pricing
According to Donkin, when the IM group was formed, Absa’s data warehouse was in its credit card business, but
“not customer-centric, not operationally stable and not business-directed.” It stored soon most of its competitors
information that no one really needed, and that few knew how to find. Today the IM followed suit. So it started to
group improves the relationship between IT at the back end and business decision fool around with the credit
makers on the front end. It facilitates such analytical applications as scorecards, score data, determining through
fraud detection, risk management and customer analytics, which drive cross-sell, detailed analysis that some low
up-sell, retention, customer segmentation and lifetime value scores.20 score applicants might be more
likely to pay back their loans
than the score would predict.
Lessons Learned Having identified some data
that differentiates customers, it
All three of these companies achieved greater success through strategic use of was able to differentiate its own
analytically driven customer insight. It’s what is transforming their business models, services – even though the initial
enabling them to compete more aggressively – even in more commoditized industries input was a widely employed data
– and drive growth at a time when most companies are stagnant at best. source.”22

How are they doing it? These organizations have several things in common:

• Leadership at the top that understands the value of customer intelligence and
drives its use across the organization.

• An enterprise strategy emphasizing the strategic importance of analytically driven

customer insight.

• An integrated technology platform for managing data; creating customer insight;

and driving, automating and tracking interactions.

19 Davenport, Thomas H. “Make Better Decisions,” Harvard Business Review, November, 2009,
http://hbr.org. Excerpt posted by International Institute for Analytics, 2010, at: http://www.iianalytics.com
20 Reprinted by permission of Harvard Business Press. Excerpt from Analytics at Work: Smarter
Decisions, Better Results by Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris, and Robert Morison (2010).
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid. 9
 TURNING CUSTOMER DATA INTO ANALYTICAL MARKETING FUEL

Enabling the Vision:

The Need for an Integrated Technology Platform

The technology platform used to support analytically driven customer intelligence

must enable the collection of detailed profile and behavior data, the analysis that
turns this data into unique customer insight, and the right tools for leveraging this
insight to personalize and improve customer interactions across channels. From
a marketing perspective, a structured way of thinking about this is in terms of the
“three I’s” of marketing – a customer-centric marketing model that highlights the role
of analytically driven customer knowledge in multichannel marketing strategies:

• Deepen customer insight – by managing quality customer data, predicting

customer behavior and profiling and segmenting customers.

• Choreograph customer interactions – by managing and optimizing strategies and

engaging in high-potential customers.

• Continuously improve marketing performance – by measuring and reporting

results, optimizing marketing investments and learning from every customer
interaction.

The three I’s are quickly emerging as the higher level of marketing management
activities. As the four P’s of marketing begin to be managed by empowered
customers, increased emphasis is being placed on the three I’s as new strategic
levers to control outcomes. These levers – when powered by the right technologies –
enable you to manage the multichannel customer experience; align the organization
around high-potential customers; and build a loyal, profitable customer base that
proactively advocates for your business.

Each of the three I’s requires special organizational competencies – and when you
link them together, you can support an enterprise business model that aligns your
organization – and the delivery of its products and services – around the customers
who represent your best opportunities for profitable, long-term growth. In short, this
is a model for growing a durable, profitable customer base, building relationships with
each customer, and turning them into advocates for your business.

SAS® Solutions Can Help

Are you prepared to take advantage of the two pivotal events transforming how
companies will compete in the years to come – the data explosion and the
emergence of highly empowered customers who demand highly personalized
interactions? Don’t get left behind. The technical platform and best practices needed
to ensure your success are available today – from SAS. SAS is the leading provider
of enterprise customer intelligence platforms that support the three I’s of marketing –
insight, interaction and improvement – in a seamless, end-to-end manner. As shown

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in Figure 2, our integrated technologies enable you to deploy customer-centric

business strategies by supporting a complete, closed-loop business process for:

• Managing the multichannel customer experience.

• Aligning your organization around high-potential customers.

• Building a loyal and profitable customer base that advocates for your business or
organization.

Figure 2: SAS supports a closed-loop, customer-centric business model based on the

three I’s.

For more information about how SAS can help you evolve into a more effective
competitor through the strategic use of analytically driven customer insight, visit
www.sas.com/customer-intelligence, where you can view success stories, white
papers and other resources.

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