Understanding the Nature of Marketing Analytics in Ghana: A Case Study of Multinational Firms.

Abstract

Over the years, marketing analytics had surfaced as a third component of the marketing research, considered on equal footing with quantitative and qualitative research. While the process is not new, its implementation and uses today are always changing, in an environment where consumers are evolving, hence the need for marketers to gather as much relevant information on the customer as is practically and ethically possible. This study thus investigated the nature of marketing analytics in multinational organisations in Ghana. Utilising a qualitative research approach, the researcher adopted a case study strategy, semistructured interview, and a purposive sampling technique to sample four multinational organisations in Ghana. Three research questions were investigated. With the use of a thematic analysis, key findings for the study were discovered. Objective one, which explored the purpose and usage of analytics, it was revealed that marketing analytics was used mainly for promotion by the organisations. Additionally, it was discovered that the use of analytics was still developing in most organisations. The next objective was to identify factors which influence the organisation’s use of analytics. Two major finding revealed here were that the type of organisation and competition were key factors affecting the use of analytics in marketing. Finally, the study’s objective three sought to investigate the success and challenges associated with the use of marketing analytics and discovered that successes included effective tracking of marketing performance and campaigns while some challenges arose from dealing with third party organisation or lack of employee knowledge with the use of various marketing analytics software/tools. The study recommends that organisations develop a culture centred around the use of marketing analytics while there must be training for employees in order to better utilise analytical software/tool