Starcom MediaVest unveils IntenTrack

MUMBAI: Marketing mantras like brand USP, positioning and experience may sound too corny hereafter. The buzzword in the future could be consumer intent with marketers able to track purchase behaviours.

IntenTrack, a study that identifies consumer intent actions that drive brand sales, was unveiled on Tuesday by Starcom MediaVest Group, a part of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe.

Starcom claims IntenTrack is the first global exercise to understand consumer intent, how it influences behaviour and how it is itself influenced by brand interactions.
Sandeep Lakhina, managing director, India-West and South, Starcom Worldwide, said the company believes that consumer attention would be the scarcest resource in the future.

“In 2006, we embarked on a journey to be masters of the art and science of consumer attention. Understanding and measuring intent is central to that initiative.”
Ravi Kiran, CEO, South-East and South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, said, “IntenTrack is not a tool, but a new measure for marketing accountability.”

“We’ve already begun educating our clients about IntenTrack and how it stands to benefit them. Usually, all we talk about are GRPs (gross rating points), TRPs (targetted rating points) and CPTs (cost per thousand). I hope IntenTrack will help change the nature of our conversations with them (clients),” he said.

Starcom has full service clients in India such as Aircel, Jet Airways, Samsung Mobile, Samsung Electronics, Kotak Mahindra, Bharat Matrimony, Sun Microsystems, Tata Housing and Western Union. In the course of IntenTrack’s launch over the last 20 months, Starcom MediaVest held dialogues with over 2 million consumers in all global markets, including 11 Asian markets, about their media, intent behaviours and purchase habits.

This entailed identifying different ways that consumers interacted with the brand, from classical television to peer-to-peer conversations. The consumer’s intent behaviour towards those brands was also captured in the same period. These range from low-level behavioural shifts — such as changing attitudes towards the brand — to intent behaviours more directly related to purchase — such as seeking information, talking to others and visiting a store to experiencing the brand and finally to purchase.

Ranga Somanathan, VP — Insights and Analytics, South East & South Asia, said, “Intent moves us beyond engagement and gets us closer to predicting and assessing a measurable, behavioural reaction of the consumer.”

“The consumer’s response to a message could be on any of the four platforms — consideration (deep curiosity), validation (seeking an opinion), expression (giving an opinion) and exploration (active searching on the web). It can ultimately encompass a consumer’s desire to purchase or recommend a brand,” he said.
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net