Given how data has been labelled the oil of the digital economy, no company can afford not to effectively mine it for information to inform critical business decisions. But are African organisations embracing this?

By Jacques Kuhn, GM of Colony HQ

Fundamentally, data mining is the process of finding anomalies, patterns, and correlations within large data sets to predict outcomes. In turn, this information is used to increase revenues, cut costs, improve customer relationships, and enhance the brand of a business.

Data collected from competitions, marketing campaigns, customer acquisition drives, and so on, are rich with information that can benefit an organisation. The unfortunate reality is that many brands across the continent are not leveraging the data they have garnered from such campaigns to implement any material changes.

In fact, many campaigns are a result of a knee-jerk reaction to declining sales – instead of being part of an overriding strategic vision. Even in South Africa, this remains an ongoing concern.

Change needed

Clearly, there are changes needed if African businesses are going to marry data analysis with brand campaigns to achieve a better return on investment. For one, there must be a desire to want to use data to further enhance a strategy. It is one thing understanding that data mining is needed, but something else completely to actively embrace it as a strategic deliverable.

A vital part of this process is to determine what the key performance indicators (KPIs) of a campaign need to be. This will help guide the organisation and identify the areas of a brand campaign that need strengthening. The ability to collect usable data is driven by having a clear strategy. And this can only be done when there is a vision of what data is needed to determine the KPIs.

Practical components

Beyond the strategic willingness, what are some of the tactical elements that brands can introduce to gain more valuable data from customers?

Incentives are an important part of this process. It does not matter if you are in Africa, Europe, or America, people will provide a brand with virtually any information if the right incentives exist. Of course, to accurately capture this information, the campaign ecosystem needs to be conducive to capturing data effectively. For example, using a Web form to capture information in an area where data is limited is not a good idea. This is especially the case in rural Africa where mobile data is expensive and people are reliant on WiFi networks to access information.

To this end, brands in Africa need to embrace the most widely-used technologies to drive campaigns. When it comes to mobile, things like SMS, instant messaging, and even USSD are imperative for data mining. Brands can also deploy unique ‘intelligent’ codes. People can use these codes to redeem for a reward and this can form the start of the data story.

Sophisticated technology

Aiding brands in Africa is the proliferation of mobile devices and the start of increasing access to the internet. Yes, the price of mobile data remains high, but the burgeoning availability of free WiFi hotspots is starting to build momentum on the connectivity side.

Brands can therefore stretch the mechanisms designed to entice and capture the attention of their customers. However, differentiation is key to moving beyond the clutter.

In short, data must be taken seriously. Brands need to embrace this new data-driven world and leverage insights to unlock patterns and trends previously unavailable. The data story is starting to become a reality – and the companies and brands actively driving it will achieve critical competitive advantage.

Is your brand falling behind the narrative?