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
- Excel is great for many reasons – conducting data analysis, making educated decisions, etc
- 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:
- 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
- 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
- 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
- The company datasets would be collated, remodeled/structured and uploaded onto Explorazor
- A few hours of training will be undertaken by Brand Managers to understand how to query the system and extract insights optimally
- 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.
Take a product tour today!
