Category: Explorazor

Why Should an Insights Team Consider Explorazor for Brand Managers?

by adminin ad-hoc query, Brand Managers, dashboarding tool, data pivots, Excel, Explorazor, Insights Team

In this blog, we’ll be making a case for why an Insights team should consider Explorazor for Brand Managers, discussing the problem with current dashboarding tools, and how Explorazor will benefit Insights Teams massively. 

Before we begin, just a quick introduction to Explorazor – it is a data exploration tool designed specifically for Brand Managers to obtain instant data pivots on an all-inclusive, integrated dataset, using a simple search functionality, with the ability to pin insights to dashboard and download any data point as a CSV file.

Let’s begin:

Introduction

Now, a part of the job for an Insights team is to introduce new products/tools in the company to help Brand Managers –

  1. Extract the maximum out of the data – as in, extracting the best insights which lead to the best decisions
  2. Doing so in a manner that eases, not complicates, a Brand Manager’s interactions with the data 

We interviewed 100+ Brand Managers from Unilever, Nestle, Reckitt, Glenmark, Godrej, and more, asking them about the lives of Brand Managers and the various data-related challenges they face. We then developed Explorazor, the data exploration tool in question, in such a way as to 

  1. Help Brand Managers get any data pivots instantly
  2. Ensure that it is so simple, that Brand Managers have no difficulty in adopting it

Regarding the instant data pivots, it is possible on Explorazor because Explorazor hosts all data in an integrated manner. Think of Kantar, Nielsen, IQVIA, primary sales, secondary sales, media, and every other dataset, all combined into one. Regarding the instant adoption, there is no end-user difficulty in usage, nor is there any novel proposal – Explorazor simply seeks to improve their Excel experience, without leaving Excel entirely.

Brand Managers are strikingly similar in their possession of skill sets, job roles, and the right personality traits, so the background they came from didn’t prove to be an adoption hindrance as well. 

The Problem with Dashboarding Tools

The major part of a Brand Manager’s job is to ensure that the brand is operating smoothly, across geographies. To do this on a typical BI dashboard, they would have to make, manage, and maintain tens of dashboards at a time. Workload is increased. 

Additionally, the data is stored individually, with no communication between them whatsoever. Creating a connection between them to answer ad-hoc queries is a painstaking task, and Brand Managers simply ask the Insights Team to revert with an answer to their ad-hoc queries. 

Finally, even if the dashboarding tool is able to do all of this, Brand Managers educating themselves on the ins and outs of the tool and how to use it, is, simply put, not going to happen. As a Growth Analytics Lead of a 35,000+ employee company told us “There are so many tools in a company, but nobody uses them. They just pose questions to us!”

Such is the case of the average company – BI tools that help create dashboards are lying unused because they don’t help people (in our case, Brand Managers) ease their daily lives. 

Benefiting Both Parties

The primary reason for Insights Teams to consider Explorazor for their Brand Managers is that Explorazor empowers the Brand Manager to ‘Do It Himself’. No longer is the Brand Manager dependent on anyone to run ad-hoc analysis. The win-win here is that the Insights Team’s time is freed up to concentrate on what they should actually be doing – strategizing for the long-term, running different types of modeling on different datasets to create better forecasts and targets for the business, and so on.

Consider an example: Suppose your company owns an apparel brand present in retail stores across the nation. Now as an Insights Team, you can focus on things like mapping out the loyalty base in each region, and studying why it is shifting, if that’s the case. You can then start benchmarking competition and finding out if a particular campaign they ran during that time period led to a shift in the loyalty base. If sales showed de-growth in stores in a particular city during the year-end, you can dig deep to find the exact answer for it – it may be something as minute as the discount scheme offered by competition being better than yours. You can design loyalty programs to win back your customer base, in addition to ensuring you have a better discount scheme the next time around. In a utopian and very possible scenario, Brand Managers would be thanking you over emails and town halls. 

All of this is possible, if only you have the freedom to execute what you are capable of.

Insights team should consider Explorazor for Brand Managers. If you are interested in knowing more about Explorazor, kindly schedule a 30-min demo call with us here.

If you want to understand how Explorazor helps Brand Managers explore data on an integrated dataset, we suggest you skim through the ‘3 Types of Analysis Brand Managers can Perform Super-Easily on Explorazor’ blog. 

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3 Types of Data Analysis Brand Managers can Perform Super-Easily on Explorazor

by adminin Brand Managers, data analysis, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor, querying

Explorazor is a data exploration tool designed specifically to help brand managers in their day-to-day data analysis and exploration, which they’d otherwise do on Excel.

The Explorazor platform provides Brand Managers with a single view of all their data. With data analysis made easy and fast through this single-view dataset, Brand Managers are also able to accelerate the speed of their hypothesis testing. All they have to do is use a simple search interface to get the answers they are looking for, in the form of relevant pivots/charts.

Explorazor - Making data analysis easy for Brand Managers!

Here are the 3 Types of Data Analysis Brand Managers can Perform Super-Easily on Explorazor:

  1. Category vs Your Brand 

Let’s say you, as a Brand Manager, need to look at your brand’s performance in relation to the performance of your brand category. This is helpful in tracking the market, detecting consumer trends, and comparing how relatively strong a market is, with its overall sales. 

Let’s look at an example of how Explorazor makes it easy and quick to search your data and get answers instantly.

Above is how a search query and the result look on Explorazor. You can see the keyword-based query conducted which, if translated to an interrogative sentence, reads as ‘What is the Market Sales Value of our brand Alpha Supplement and how has it performed with respect to its Category, on a quarterly basis?’ 

  1. Competition vs Your Brand 

The next type of data analysis is Competition vs Your Brand. Once you’ve identified your competitors, consistently measuring their performance helps you benchmark your own growth vs. theirs. 

Further to querying, Explorazor allows you to pin your answers to the project dashboard, which means that all pinned answers are updated every time the data refreshes. The need to re-query the same thing is eliminated.

Let’s look at the ‘Competition vs Your Brand’ query here. As you can see, there are more inputs in this search query than in the last one. The query reads as ‘Comparing the average Market Sales Value, Net Spends on TV, average Share amongst Handlers of our brand Alpha Supplement as against other brands, for the last quarter.’

Using the customization options above, one can also convert the table into a chart of their choice. 

One can easily pin the query using the available icon on the top right, and add the particular query to the dashboard.

  1. Compare Primary Sales, Secondary Sales and Market Sales

To compare and analyze primary, secondary, and market sales values in Excel requires separate access to 3 different datasets. The results have to be then collated to get a complete understanding. 

Since all datasets are connected in Explorazor, you can simply access the single integrated dataset and obtain answers swiftly, with a single query.

Here we are comparing the average Market Share Value, Net Spends on TV, average Share amongst Handlers of our brand Alpha Supplement as against competitor brands, for the last quarter.

The default tabular format provides a clean and familiar look for Brand Managers to analyze the data, and is downloadable as a CSV file too, in case it needs to be transported to Excel for further exploration.

Directly Proportional – Quality & Speed 

The quality of decision-making is directly proportional to the speed and convenience of the hypotheses testing process. Systematically investigating the validity and reliability of multiple areas of interest simultaneously serves as a solid foundation for incremental improvements that may have otherwise not been possible. De-cluttering a Brand Manager’s mind space by providing an integrated data view and freeing up their time through data cuts at their fingertips will work wonders for both the brand and the manager – and that is what Explorazor is all about. 

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3 Data-Related Challenges Brand Managers Face and How to Solve Them

by adminin Brand Manager, data analysis, data cuts, Data Exploration, data-related challenge, Excel, Explorazor, pivot

Tell us a better love story than Brand Managers and data.

Brand Managers possess some of the strongest number-crunching skills in the industry. Everything’s solved and managed in Excel; sales, logistics, marketing; development, execution, evaluation. Operations and decisions are dependent purely on data, and these invite data-related challenges as well.

Let’s look at 3 data-related challenges Brand Managers face, and the possible solution to each:

Data-Related Challenge 1 – Data Fragmentation

The swiftness of strategic decisions suffers the most when data is fragmented across files and sheets. The data currently residing in Excel is stored under different column headers and cannot be combined. Internal and external data reside separately, and pivots have to be repetitively extracted from each individual dataset to move further with the analysis.

Fragmented, unsynchronized datasets also affect the quality of insights derived. One reason we can think of is the sheer (and avoidable, as you will see in the solution) manual effort BMs put in, in bringing the data at one place to perform analysis on it.

Solution

We have a tailored method to organize your data. Explorazor by vPhrase Analytics is a data exploration platform built specifically for Brand Managers to query their data better and extract instant data cuts from it. What Explorazor does is combine all the datasets currently residing in Excel, and provide unified, single-view access for Brand Managers to explore. Examples of such datasets would be primary sales, secondary sales, Kantar, IQVIA, and more. 

Explorazor relieves Brand Managers from having to constantly switch between files and sheets to find relevant data cuts. Correlating reasons for market loss, estimating the right media budget spend, gauging discounting effectiveness, finding best-performing regions, etc. become much easier. We imagine that a seamless experience will encourage Brand Managers to explore further and deeper into event root causes, key focus areas, and other ad-hoc analyses.

Data-Related Challenge 2 – Data Standardization

Metric definition is the first hurdle in the data standardization process. What Nielsen defines as an Urban area and a Rural area and what internal company definitions for the same terms are, are mostly dissimilar. Information capturing done by field sales personnel contains numerous kinds of errors. The spellings are different, the name of a state is mentioned in a shorter form, capitalization issues, etc etc. 

Raw data standardization is a necessary prerequisite for efficient data analysis, and right now it is a task that Brand Managers would love to sweep off their table.

Solution

Our team at Explorazor ensures that all your data is modeled and standardized so data analysis can be conducted without having to worry about missing data points.

Redundant, duplicate, inaccurate, and irrelevant data is expelled, leaving a de-cluttered dataset that serves as a base for higher-quality analysis and insights extraction.

A clean dataset is also helpful when creating routine dashboards and presentations for senior management.     

Data-Related Challenge 3 – Large (and Clumsy) Data Dumps

The data dumps that Brand Managers work on are too large – Excel cannot output results fast on our laptops, as one would like. Loading – and ensuring that the data is saved – takes excessive time. An abundance of formula insertion slows the workbook down. 

Thinking about quick pivots? Think again. Then again, and then again, because your laptop is slow and you have lots of time on your hands…

Solution

Loading huge Excel files is no joke. To create pivots, and to create them now, is one of the prime reasons we believe a solution like Explorazor will go a long way in assisting Brand Managers save time. All data resides on servers and is accessible via a browser, so laptops breathe freely again. Brand Managers, using a simple search interface on Explorazor, can conduct ad-hoc analysis and test out hypotheses at accelerated speeds. 

If you want to take the pivots to Excel – permission granted. All pivots are downloadable as CSV files. Convert pivots into charts using simple customization options and pin them to pinboards. Each project within Explorazor allows its separate pinboard creation.

Explorazor is built for Brand Managers

Explorazor alleviates data-related challenges which Brand Managers face, as well as: 

  • Saves their time by taking the processing load off their laptops
  • Eases their data exploration journey by providing unified access to all their datasets
  • Enhances the quality of their insights by standardizing all current and incoming data
  • Increases their independence by letting them conduct ad-hoc analyses on their own, without over-reliance on BI/Insights teams 

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Modeling Basic FMCG KPIs in Excel

by adminin Brand Managers, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor, FMCG

This blog will introduce you to how Brand Managers model basic FMCG KPIs in Excel.

There are a lot of articles that touch upon the life of a Brand Manager and the various responsibilities they shoulder. Here we will put a microscope on just one of the numerous calculations that Brand Managers undertake, and learn how they find business improvement areas through data analysis.

If you are a Brand Manager, we recommend you skip to the end of this blog to ‘Basic FMCG Modeling Made Easy’ or read ‘Complementing Excel – How Brand Managers can Simplify Data Exploration and Analysis’.

Let us understand how to obtain Gross Margin, Net Margin, and Operational Profit. Arriving at these numbers helps Brand Managers analyze where they are losing their margin – is it at the production level, is it the cost of sales and marketing, or is it the head office costs? Brand Managers thus have a sense of direction to initiate further data exploration and make optimal, data-driven decisions.

Let’s begin:

Part 1 – Obtaining Net Margin

  1. Unit Gross Margin 

Unit Gross Margin Depends on two things – 

  1. The average price we are getting from the middlemen, or if we are directly selling to the customers, from them 
  2. Subtracting the unit production cost from this average price 

So Unit Gross Margin = Avg product price (say Rs. 70) minus its production cost (say Rs. 40) = Rs. 30

Note: The unit production cost is again dependent on two things – 

a. The total fixed cost divided by the total quantity produced, plus 

b. The unit variable cost

There are further sub-calculations in each component. For example, Total Fixed Cost (FC) includes salaries to be paid, which is typically generated as: taking the number of full-time employees or full-time equivalents (FTE), setting an average salary per FTE, and assuming some social securities as a percentage of the salary. The salary excludes the bonus earned by the employee.

  1. Gross Margin 

Once we have the unit gross margin and the total number of products sold, we get the Gross Margin easily enough.

Gross Margin = Unit Gross Margin x Total Products Sold

The Gross Margin will be calculated for various channels we are selling through, and a year-on-year, or month-on-month record will be maintained too.

As you can see, such calculations require Brand Managers to be detail-oriented, organized, knowledgeable and possess a deft hand at Excel.  

  1. Sales and Marketing Costs 

Obtaining the Gross Margin has covered the Production Cost. We have yet to factor in the sales and marketing costs, so let’s do that. Sales and marketing costs depend on the size of a brand’s market share. A bigger market share means we are selling more, which means that the costs attached to sales and marketing per unit is lesser. 

Marketing elements would include –

  • Social Media
  • TV ads (computed as the number of campaigns multiplied by the cost of 1 campaign)
  • Outdoor campaigns
  • Loyalty programs
  • Market research
  • Mailing

Components of cost of sales would be –

  • Salaries
  • External services (cars, phones, fuel, etc)
  • Materials & Energy
  • Other related services

These would be calculated for both retail chains where we supply directly as well as for the traditional stores that we reach via wholesalers.

  1. Net Margin

Part 2 – Obtaining Operational Profit

Deducting Head Office costs from the Net Margin gives us the Operational Profit. Head Office costs include –

  • Salaries
  • Material and Utilities
  • Maintenance
  • Rent (for offices and warehouses)
  • Depreciation and amortization of assets

Part 3 – Zooming Out

Converting all numbers into percentages for easier visual view, the final output would be like this:

Basic FMCG Modeling Made Easy

The above KPI modeling and profit calculation require a Brand Manager to continuously switch between multiple tabs and insert various formulae to get the figures. The same process can be augmented through Explorazor, our data exploration tool. 

Explorazor combines and hosts all datasets, for example, market research, internal sales, Nielsen data, etc. in an integrated manner. Brand Managers thus obtain a single view of the entire dataset. From there, they can extract data cuts instantly through a simple search function of using column names as keywords.  

Explorazor also allows 

  • Visualizing pivots as charts
  • Pinning the charts to a pinboard, and 
  • Downloading them as CSV files

Moreover, all data resides on servers and is accessible via a browser. Laptops are thus relieved from the burden of processing huge datasets. Brand Managers are further liberated when their reliance on BI teams is reduced. The acceleration of ad-hoc exploration is experienced immediately with Explorazor.

Explorazor is built for large enterprises, with single sign-on, row and column level security, data encryption, and on-cloud and on-premise availability.

Do you want to see other features added to Explorazor? Write to us at sales@vphrase.com. If you want to see the product in action, take an interactive Product Tour.

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4 Common Expectations that Brand Managers Have from A Data Exploration Tool

by adminin Brand Managers, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor, pivot

Excel is all-prevailing. A 2022 survey by Microbizmag estimates that Microsoft Productivity Services, which includes Excel, are used by 1.1 billion people on the planet. That’s approximately 1 in every 8 people alive. Launched in 1985, Excel is still the ultimate number-crunching tool today, with little competition. Capture data, mix-and-match, collaborate with colleagues on complex issues – Excel does it all. 

But there’s another part to it 

People do face some problems using Excel. It is tedious to delve into the seemingly never-ending maze of rows and columns, day in and day out. Many have to make do with that, but for Brand Managers, things can be simplified. 

There are solutions in the market that can help ease the daily operations of Brand Managers who use Excel to explore data and arrive at decisions. The proposal here is a data exploration platform that allows Brand Managers to mitigate Excel’s shortcomings, without having to completely revolutionize the way they work currently. 

Let’s approach this on an assumption that a Brand Manager is interested in such a tool, and naturally has certain expectations of it. Can the tool fulfill these expectations?

After speaking with many Brand Managers.. 

From top firms like Unilever, Abbott, SC Johnson, Asian Paints, and many others, we found the following 4 common expectations that Brand Managers have from such a data exploration platform if they are to consider using it:

1 – Brand Managers want data exploration on integrated datasets 

The planning and strategizing components are strenuous enough, in addition to the many other responsibilities BMs shoulder. They don’t need another tool to come in and create a mess; if they do go for a tool, it ought to simplify their routine activities.

Solution –  A method of simplifying data exploration that tools like Explorazor offer is the integration of multiple data sources under a single roof. Brand Managers would then no longer have to scour through multiple Excel sheets to find a singular piece of data. Simply hop on a platform that unifies all datasets, and extract the desired responses from it. 

2 – Brand Managers want the data exploration tool to respond quickly

A fair question that BMs would ask now is ‘How long will it take me to extract the right data points to obtain a response?’ 

The basis for such a question is that Excel typically hosts enormous volumes of data, and the whole process from data uploading to insights extraction is very slow. 

Solution – Explorazor’s simple search function yields real-time responses. Ask for any specific data cut simply by posing a question to the system, and a relevant chart/graph/table is readily presented. Since the whole dataset is integrated, one is already at the right place – there is no need to spend time finding the right sheet. 

One can download these data cuts as CSV files too if needed

3 – Brand Managers want pivot tables 

Not much needs to be said regarding pivot’s importance, and it’s perfectly safe to say that no tool would be worth its value if it doesn’t support pivots.

Solution – Create pivots on Explorazor by simply mentioning the column names you want a pivot on. Additionally, Explorazor’s pivot feature empowers Brand Managers to obtain cross-sectional data tables by using metrics from multiple data sources at a time.

4 – Brand Managers want a data exploration tool! (hidden expectation)

Brand Managers are incredibly busy, resourceful individuals who would love to have technology ease their daily tasks. 

Solution – Explorazor does not require a radical shift in the current working method of Brand Managers. It is just a unifying platform that brings together diverse data and analytics that drive value for an organization and seeks to simplify a Brand Manager’s data exploration journey as well.

Let’s Connect

Why not take some time to see Explorazor in action yourself? 

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6 Challenges Faced by Brand Managers when Marketing and Selling FMCG Products

by adminin Brand Managers, Explorazor, FMCG

The aim of this blog is to help readers understand and appreciate the various challenges that Brand Managers in the FMCG industry tackle on a daily basis when marketing and/or selling FMCG products. Let’s start with a quick introduction, followed by a swift overview of the challenges:

Investopedia defines FMCG as follows:
“Fast-moving consumer goods are products that sell quickly at relatively low cost. These goods are also called consumer packaged goods. FMCGs have a short shelf life because of
– High consumer demand (e.g., soft drinks and confections) or
– Because they are perishable (e.g., meat, dairy products, and baked goods)
These goods are purchased frequently, consumed rapidly, priced low, and sold in large quantities. They also have a high turnover when they’re on the shelf at the store.”

6 Common Challenges Brand Managers Face When Marketing and/or Selling FMCG Branded Products

  1. How to Create Brand Architecture and Establish Brand Awareness

Brand awareness choices are hard, and each carries its own pros and cons. An example of an initial decision to be made is to either go for an umbrella branding (think LG) or brand each product separately. The Brand Architecture (the science of how brands and sub-brands in a company’s portfolio are related to each other) of P&G pits Tide and Ariel against each other in the market, while both are in-house brands. The advantage of umbrella branding is that the brand credibility overflows from one product to the other – if you trust an LG refrigerator, why not go for an LG air conditioner. The con applies in the same way; if you didn’t like the fridge, you’ll wave the AC goodbye as well.

Branding each product separately involves more capital raising each brand off the ground. There is no parent brand to fire them up and boost their brand reputation. However, one is open to exploring new target markets and experimenting with the price range – there is no need to stick to any previous approach since the connection between the brand and the parent company is not established in the minds of the masses. 

The challenges go much, much deeper than this, and there are many other ways to create a brand architecture, but we hope you got an overview of the tough Brand Architecture choice that Brand Managers make even before proceeding with multi-channel online and offline promotion for Brand Awareness. 

  1. How to Establish Reach

Reach simply means if the product is available everywhere, at all times. Building great brands has to be complemented with a robust logistical infrastructure if the product is to contribute significantly to company revenue consistently. 

Brand Managers work on huge datasets, conducting complex data analysis to set up the distribution flow while managing costs, and optimizing them wherever possible. A BM in a food-producing company will look at 

  1. The total number of warehouses
  2. The total area of each warehouse 
  3. The number of trucks available to carry the goods to the destination
  4. The holding capacity of each truck and its expected fuel usage
  5. The wages of the drivers and the cost of fuel 
  6. Truck maintenance cost 
  7. Other factors such as optimal routes and seasonality also come into play. Bear in mind that most of these calculations are derived through exhaustive data exploration; only some are readily available 

Once the numerical values are achieved, Brand Managers proceed to identify cost and process inefficiencies and look at ways to plug them. 

As Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States of America, underlining the importance of reach, once said, “You will not find it difficult to prove that battles, campaigns, and even wars have been won or lost primarily because of logistics.”

3. How to Manage Price 

Pricing is a sensitive issue. Underprice, and bottom lines go for a toss. Set too high a margin for the product, and you won’t be able to penetrate into new markets or sustain in the existing ones. 

Pricing in FMCG depends on multiple factors, some of which are explained:

a) The demand for the product in the market and the customer’s willingness to pay for a particular product. The demand/willingness-to-pay price curve helps locate the optimal price peak w.r.t to quantity and w.r.t revenue generation as well. The customer’s willingness to pay is usually based on the price perception a customer has of the product

b) Existing market price – that of competition. This is one of the safest approaches to take when launching a new product in the market, for obvious reasons

c) The approach of the company also plays a part. Apple uses a price skimming strategy where it initially charges high but adopts lower prices as competition, say Samsung Galaxy, begins to enter the market. Conversely, we see streaming platforms adopt a price penetration strategy in the Indian market over the past few years, where they charged super-low prices for a wide library of content, and built upwards from there.

d) Managing price across channels is yet another challenge for Brand Managers today. The same product competes against different competitors on different channels, with customer behavior and expectation varying channel-wise too. Determining channel markups and avoiding price conflicts are subject to deep data analysis and exploration.

4. How to Manage Customer Experience and Promotional Strategies across Channels

Just like pricing, channel-wise CX and strategy management are heavily impacted by channels. Retail stores offer a completely different experience to the same customer as compared to a D-Mart or Reliance Smart. Smart cross-channel strategies are important to create a consistent brand experience for the customer, no matter where s/he chooses to interact with the product. Brand Managers create a budget and undertake a marketing campaign covering social media, website, paid ads, and more. It’s the whole marketing exercise that Brand Managers are responsible for.

Such cross-channel strategies go beyond simple brand awareness and product value communication; there are multiple upselling and cross-selling opportunities that need to be exploited.

5. How to Manage Product Life Cycle

Product Life Cycle is understood as the series of stages that a product goes through, right from being introduced to the consumer till it is discontinued. These stages are broadly classified as Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline. Various models such as the Product Life Cycle curve and the BCG Matrix Model are used for product planning and control. Especially in FMCG where products are sold quickly and at lower costs, with limited and continuous distribution, is it very important to understand the stage at which the product lies in its life cycle, and devise a value-creation model for consumers that simultaneously generates revenue for the brand/s.

6. How (and whether) to Diversify Existing Brands

Capsule Case Study: In 2001, ITC found itself in a precarious position when the Government of India introduced stringent measures to curb the usage of cigarettes among the masses. This included the prohibition of the sale of tobacco products to individuals below 18 years and a ban on media advertising. Even surrogate advertising was banned. To diversify from cigarettes, ITC invested a whopping  Rs. 5 billion in non-tobacco-related businesses in 2001, including Branded Packaged Food, Greeting Cards & Gifts, and Lifestyle Retailing. 

A point to note is that ITC’s diversification strategies were operational since the 1970s, and the events in 2001 proved to be an immediate catalyst for ITC’s diversification approach. As the case stands, ITC’s revenue in Q1 2023 in the non-cigarette FMCG segment was Rs. 4,458.71 crore, a sharp rise from Rs. 3,731.40 crores just a year ago. 

Brand Managers play an instrumental role in such change management strategies. This comes from exhaustive data exploration, analyses, hypotheses testing, and an understanding of ground-level realities. From primarily cigarettes to juice, biscuits, noodles and what-have-you, Brand Managers at ITC made sure that diversification strategies led ITC to not just survive, but thrive against many odds. 

Conclusion

There are many other challenges faced by Brand Managers, like managing seasonal demands, improving the efficiency of marketing activities, handling Target Audience lifecycle, looking for ways to spread beyond original Target Groups, and more. Each of these activities demands that Brand Managers have a pragmatic outlook and well-honed data analytical skills. 

We at Explorazor are making the lives of Brand Managers easy by allowing them to obtain one-stop access to their data. On Explorazor, Brand Managers can work on an integrated and standardized dataset that helps extract data cuts in seconds, allowing hypotheses testing at a much faster rate than what BMs are currently accustomed to. The time spent switching between tabs, sheets, and pivots is effectively eliminated, laptops process data much faster, and what’s more, everything is downloadable as CSV for further analysis. There are many other advantages for Brand Managers and Insights teams as well.

If You Want to Brighten a Brand Manager’s Day

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Complementing Excel – How Brand Managers can Simplify Data Exploration and Analysis

by adminin Brand Managers, Data Exploration, Excel, Explorazor

The relationship between Brand Managers and data analysis is a two-way street. The abundance of incoming and present data necessitates the use of software, mostly Excel, to make important decisions backed by data. And it does yield benefits – Excel holds multiple datasets that can be exhaustively explored. Multiple datasets can be put together in a single file for analysis. 

On the other end, though, there are some aspects of Excel we all prefer not to deal with. It can prove to be cumbersome, for one. As a former Brand Manager at P&G told us, “It’s great, but slow”. And not just him, almost every Brand Manager we interviewed from voiced the same sentiment.

To summarize quickly

  1. Excel is great for many reasons – conducting data analysis, making educated decisions, etc
  2. Excel can pose a number of issues for Brand Managers, such as being time-consuming and overly manual  

Moving away from Excel? No.

Even contemplating a move to a tool other than Excel seems impossible. And we’re not proposing that either. However, is it possible that there is a way to avoid the disadvantages of Excel while retaining its benefits? If such a solution does exist, what does it look like? Will that solution come with its own set of cons that would have to be dealt with? 

To even consider these questions, one must be open to the idea of exploring other options. If you have browsed through a few of Harvard Business Review’s articles on change and change management, you would be well aware that resistance to change is one of the biggest impediments to executing a successful change strategy. 

Now while HBR’s articles talk about change on a grand, org-level, it is equally applicable to every single activity within the overarching strategy blueprint. So before we even begin to speak about using anything other than Excel for data analysis, we must be open to the idea of it.

Circling back to the topic, 

Is there an easier way for Brand Managers to conduct data exploration and analysis, without leaving Excel entirely?

Yes, and it involves moving away partly from Excel onto a much simpler platform that retains Excel’s advantages, eliminates its drawbacks, and remains in sync with Excel throughout. 

Let’s understand the BI platform in question, Explorazor, through the benefits and value additions it provides Brand Managers who currently use Excel for data exploration:

  1. One-view access to the data – Brand Managers deal with fragmented data on Excel. The data is spread so vast, it’s tiring to know where to look at. What Explorazor does is marry all internal and external data sources and create a single-view screen for Brand Managers
  1. Obtaining data cuts easily – On the integrated data platform, Brand Managers can obtain specific, cross-sectional data cuts. Where Excel requires to-and-fro between various data sets, Explorazor will give Brand Managers, say data cuts on market share, primary sales, distribution sales, sales by zone/states/brand, etc. in an instant, simply by keywords insertion
  1. Potential for deeper exploration – On Explorazor, a query is responded to within seconds, so BMs are encouraged to ask more questions and conduct deeper data exploration and analyses. One is inclined to create and test out more hypotheses than before, leading to a better understanding of where issues lie and how they can be fixed

What’s more, Explorazor can be used to create pivot tables, and everything on Explorazor is downloadable as Excel files, so should you want to take a particular data table to Excel for further analysis, you can do so. 

What does the process look like?

The Explorazor adoption process looks like this

  1. The company datasets would be collated, remodeled/structured and uploaded onto Explorazor
  2. A few hours of training will be undertaken by Brand Managers to understand how to query the system and extract insights optimally
  3. Brand Managers start exploring data on Explorazor

Ready to start your data exploration journey with Explorazor? 

We’re not here to undermine Microsoft Excel. In so many ways, Excel is the central nervous system of businesses. But there’s no harm in exploring tools that complement Excel, either.

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