Today, boutique marketing agencies do not have to be confined to just utilizing traditional marketing strategies to help their clients. That’s because Data Science and its application towards marketing
VERSO Inc. is a cloud-based workflow management solution that manages end to end workflow across the entire ecosystem for enterprises, including functions such as trouble reporting, product returns management, quoting/ordering, recruiting, and spare parts ordering. At the time of consulting with Witmer Group, VERSO Inc. was looking to pinpoint how they could better utilize their existing data within their management system. They wanted to create a solution that could 1) help their clients increase profits, and 2) set VERSO apart from their competitors by offering cutting edge solutions based on the latest in technology. VERSO’s marketing goal was to stand out and position themselves as a leading logistics solution provider in their industry.
In response to VERSO’s marketing goal, Joo Ann Lee, Witmer Group’s Marketing Data Scientist, built a predictive model to help VERSO’s clients predict which product, how many, and when, a product would be in need of maintenance:
“Product warranties and returns are a part of everyday business operations. Within the VERSO reverse logistics module, when a product is having some type of issue, a Maintenance Trouble Report (MTR) is created to determine if a service call or product return is required. Therefore, the ability to predict which product may trigger MTRs and estimate the number of potential MTRs is useful.
However, a business opportunity for the VERSO users lies in knowing not only which product and how often the product may trigger MTRs, but when the MTRs may be triggered. For example, an opportunity to increase revenue can come from implementing premium repair fees if an extended warranty for a product is not purchased. This business opportunity requires the assistance of a statistical model trained to predict products that are likely to trigger MTRs after the expiration of its warranty. Using the same statistical model, another revenue opportunity can come from the sale of extended warranties for products not predicted to trigger MTRs after the expiration of its warranty…”.
Due to positive feedback from the community, the marketing data science efforts by Witmer Group have propelled VERSO to create an integrated approach to product returns management. As a result, VERSO has been noticed as one of the leaders within the Logistics Analytics community.
According to Kristina Witmer, the founder of Witmer Group, “Witmer Group is committed to furthering our experience and capabilities within data science in order to provide more valuable insights to our clients business and growth initiatives. Thus, redefining how boutique marketing agencies can truly help clients grow their businesses while prioritizing their specific marketing goals and needs at various specific stages.”