It could well be the next leap in thinking - the consumer genome. This phenomenon is set to play a key role across industries and drive personalization to the next level. Digital media is redefining consumer mind-sets, patterns of purchase and decision-making. Read the insights from thought leaders who are helping clients build their tomorrow's enterprise. Keep your phone number. I'll take your genome instead. Read more>> http://bit.ly/M6kbXb

1. Insights
Consumer Genome
Understanding What Makes Consumers Tick
- Vaidyanatha Siva
For those of us who aren’t rocket scientists, the genome is simply, “the entirety of an organism’s hereditary information”.
It’s what makes us human beings unique as individuals. The human genome not only determines an individual’s physical
characteristics but also influences one’s skills, attributes, attitude and even behavior.
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2. Predicting musical tastes is whole lot simpler than predicting and influencing
consumer behavior which remains the Holy Grail for marketers. John Wanamaker,
a marketing pioneer of the 19th century was resigned to spending large sums of
money on advertising while knowing half of it would be wasted – “the trouble
is, I don’t know which half”. My all-time favorite marketer, Don Draper from
“Madmen”, had no need for data, trusting his own instincts and clients be damned
The biological genome has inspired
if they disagreed. Marketers have toiled with tools and dabbled in technology
many of its cousins in the virtual
for years. But there’s been steady progress made in understanding customers
world with less grander but still useful
and huge advances achieved through digital marketing.
purposes. Most famously, Pandora
Radio’s Music Genome Project allows The first quantum leap occurred when ecommerce took off and marketers began
users to create their own radio stations to decipher clues to consumer behavior through on-line shopping data. We
to play music reflecting their personal expanded the marketing lexicon with terms like “abandoned shopping carts”
tastes. Create a station based your and “click streams”. Social media was the next great leap that allowed buyers
favorite Dave Brubeck song and you’ll to invite their friends and family to become active participants in the purchase
be served similar songs from other process – from very large purchases to the trivial. Influence is the new coin of
artists. Don’t like a song? Tell Pandora the realm and every marketer want to know who has it. The more we learn, the
and your playlists will evolve with more we want to know.
your tweaks. Pandora’s music genome
Now here’s where it gets really interesting. At Infosys, we’ve created what we call
consists of over 400 musical attributes
the Consumer Genome and it could well be the next leap in thinking. Just like
covering quality attributes of melody,
its human counterpart, the basic premise of a consumer genome is that certain
harmony, rhythm, composition and
intrinsic attributes strongly determine consumer behavior. The list includes
lyrics. This capability took years to
demographics, connections, influences, interests, needs and buying behavior.
develop and the more you use it,
That’s a marked departure from current consumer understanding practices, with
the better it gets at predicting what
an over reliance on demographic metrics as predictors of behavior.
you like. Sure, there’s lots of music to
choose from and more being created The consumer genome has its own complex DNA, made up of rich information
every day. But no matter what type about an individual that can provide unique and compelling insights into that
of music – from electronic dance to person’s consumption behavior. By decoding it, consumer product companies,
hip-hop to classical, there’s only so retailers, indeed all types of marketers can personalize their offerings, channels
many parameters that describe this and campaigns to each and every individual. Call it “extreme relevance”.
infinite body of work. Create a fancy The genesis of the consumer genome concept can be traced back a year or two
algorithm, allow it to learn from your when some initiatives at our Innovation Labs started showing incredible results.
behavior and problem solved. We witnessed a client’s marketing campaign registration rate shoot up threefold
after some fairly inexpensive and straight forward social media hooks were
introduced. Another client’s average order size from a pilot group of customers
increased 25% when the in-store shopping experience was enhanced with some
non-intrusive personalization from other data sources.
Although these interventions impacted clients in different ways, they shared
certain similarities. In each case, the client organization began to look at
its customers through a clearer lens, that of real information, rather than
guesstimates or proxy data. This sparked an effort to use technology to “connect
the dots” to arrive at a genome for an individual consumer or one who is part of
a larger group with the same “genetic” makeup.
Our initial inquiry developed into a quest for the key characteristics defining the
consumer genome, their influence on shopping behavior and a consumer’s level
of influence on others through word of mouth and social media.
The key characteristics to emerge, in order of priority, turned out to be:
immediate needs and interests, buying behavior, connections and influence, and
demographics. It became immediately apparent that marketers had been relying
on the least influential factor of demographics to influence sales conversion. If
2 | Infosys

3. marketers recognized the importance of this information earlier We see enormous potential in applying the consumer genome
they could have shifted focus to studying consumer needs and across industries. There is virtually no limit to the amount of data
interests instead. sources that can be incorporated into to the mix. Machine learning
algorithms improve the accuracy with each turn of the crank. We’ll
Thanks to advances in technology, like Cloud computing and
likely see several well defined use cases burgeoning in various
Big Data, it’s now possible to interpret both stated and implied
domains.
customer needs and interests in real-time, even as the interaction is
taking place at the store, on the Internet, or through the call center. Is it perfect? No. But we’re making headway and expect the
consumer genome to play a key role across industries and drive
While the other genome characteristics like social connections
personalization to the next level. Imagine actually being excited
certainly influence buying behavior, they don’t drive conversion to
that a retailer reached out to you the moment you realized you
the same extent as need and interest. However, social connections
needed something and provided a special customized offering
are still important in driving word of mouth.
that fit your needs precisely. We’re almost there….
Our consumer genome trials have concentrated on the retailing
industry so far but the concept is equally applicable to other
domains, ranging from insurance to financial services. For instance,
knowledge of a consumer’s genome could affect the way financial
products are marketed if a prospect’s appetite for investment
risk could be inferred along with other latent needs that are not
communicated.
About the Author
Vaidyanatha Siva
Associate Vice President and Technology Officer for the Global Retail, Consumer Goods, Life Sciences and Logistics Business Unit at Infosys
Limited
Siva is responsible for development, articulation and deployment of technology strategy for the global Retail, Consumer Goods, Life
Sciences and Logistics Business Unit. He is a member of the Unit Executive Council and is also responsible for the setup, organization
and delivery of technology consulting services aligned with the Unit’s strategic plans.
Siva has about 16 years of industry experience and has spent the last 10 years with Infosys in various technology leadership roles.
He is recognized as a technology visionary and has incubated several innovative technology products and solutions. He has also authored two books -
on next generation architecture and big data.
Siva received his bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and his master’s degree in Business Administration
from the SMU-Cox School of Business.
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