The field of quantitative marketing is one of the lesser-known areas of this industry, but it’s also one of the most important. Unlike other areas of marketing, which focus only on culled data and theoretical new campaigns to launch company products, quantitative marketing services look at the raw data in theoretical marketing campaigns, analyze empirical data associated with existing campaigns, and use the findings from those two data sources to help guide the company’s future marketing efforts toward success. This is generally split into two types of work, each of which has a different place in the marketing process at most major firms.
Theoretical Research: The Biggest Area of Quantitative Marketing
The biggest question all marketers have as they create a new campaign or use a new approach is, “will this actually work the way we want it to?” There’s no certain way of answering this question before the campaign is launched, but there are certainly a few ways to reduce or mitigate risk, produce a higher chance of campaign success, and reach the target audience more efficiently. To find out exactly what those ways are, quantitative marketers will do something known as “theoretical research.” This type of research is also known as compare-and-contrast research in the industry.
Simply put, marketers will look for a similar campaign used in the past, and then compare that campaign to the new one. They’ll look for the prior campaign’s performance indicators and launch trial balloons, or mini marketing campaigns, using the new approach. Their goal is to see whether or not a broad, new marketing campaign would perform like a prior successful campaign. They also seek to understand which changes might make the marketing effort more successful in the current economic and consumer climate. This is purely theoretical, however, since it relies on past data and cannot possibly anticipate future consumer trends and preferences.
Empirical Research: Ongoing Analysis of Marketing Metrics for Existing Campaigns
While there is plenty of research to be done in advance of a new campaign, there’s also plenty of analysis to be conduct on an existing one. Quantitative marketers shift to a more empirical approach when they look at a current marketing campaign, according to Inc.com. They’re looking for trends: Is the campaign reaching more people? Are more consumers choosing the company’s products as a result of a given marketing promotion or sustained campaign? How has the company’s position changed since it launched the campaign? Whether from analytics, surveys, case studies, or any number of other research efforts, quantitative marketers will answer these and other questions. If the answers don’t add up to financial and market success, they’ll encourage a new campaign and begin conducting theoretical research into potential changes in the company’s approach.
Related Resource: Market Research Analyst
A Growing, Data-Driven Area of the Marketing Industry
Marketing has implications for a company’s bottom line and its long-term survival, so it only makes sense that marketers would shift to a quantitative approach when sizing up an existing campaign or creating a new effort. Quantitative marketers are the ones to turn to for these data-driven procedures, since they often have an advanced education in marketing, the ability to work easily with numbers, and an understanding of how to test theoretical refinements in the marketplace. When companies need to justify spending on marketing and want to find out whether or not they’ll reach their target demographic, they turn to quantitative marketing services.
