• by Ed Abrams , Jay Hakami , October 17, 2012

Customer demands are driving the business decision-making process more than ever, as data captured online snags a lead role in how mid-size retailers and suppliers make decisions on how to evolve their offerings to better serve the individual consumer.

The ability to capture and analyze every “like” on Facebook, each Tweet and every consumer blog comment is providing marketing executives with candid customer insight, directly from the source.

The retail industry is leading the way in adoption of data-driven marketing practices, helping to set the standard for mid-size businesses. While data-driven marketing can be a complicated challenge for company IT departments, data analysis tapped the right way can result in significant improvements to the bottom line.

As the convergence between marketing and technology becomes more prominent, chief marketing officers (CMO) are starting to look for ways to get a better handle on marketing efforts and many are leveraging technology to streamline their practices. In the meantime, a CMO’s relationship with the CIO is also evolving, as both executives are looking for ways to leverage technologies to advance company practices in the era of Big Data.

Mid-size retailers must keep costs down to remain profitable, and many designate precious financial resources to develop and maintain a social presence. While some retailers have a strategic marketing plan that includes analytic tools, smaller businesses have not been as eager to jump on board when it comes to adopting advanced analytics capabilities, because they must be able to produce and justify an immediate return on any new investment they make.

CIOs play a vital role in assisting CMOs who are interested in developing data analytics tools to measure the success of their social media efforts. In turn, CIOs will look more and more to local technology providers for the latest tools and industry expertise that will help data-driven CMOs deliver business results and positive ROI.

Using social media analytics, mid-size retailers can accurately assess the effectiveness of social media campaigns by tracking both the actions of consumers and the influence of their top commenters and re-tweeters. This tool provides a fresh level of understanding into consumer behavior and allows retailers to measure custom social media programs against other marketing initiatives, enabling them to make informed business decisions through calculated ROI, on how to efficiently leverage an online presence.

Retailers and suppliers to the retail industry ranging from high-end clothing retailers such as Theory and Prada, to home-goods brands like Yankee Candle are realizing real success through cloud-based analytical tools that allow their CMOs, merchandisers, planners and sales executives to view how products are performing at the retail level. Being able to assess up-to-date consumer sales and trends based on any combination of product attributes, time dimension and geographic location provides insight that allows these companies to better address consumer needs as well as to ensure that they have the right product, at the right time, at the right place -- and therefore increase the ROI.

The blurring line between technology and business provides new opportunities for mid-size retail CMOs and CIOs to collaborate to transform marketing practices by leveraging feedback, behavior and personal insight from some of the most important business decision makers of all: the customers.