FOMO, ‘fear of missing out’ is used to describe that feeling of anxiety which many people experience when they discover that other people have been successful at doing or achieving something, which they might have wanted to be involved in, but ended up missing out on.
The concept of FOMO is of course nothing new. But the acronym of No Mo FOMO, ‘No More Fear of Missing Out’ has certainly struck a chord with us. We have invented a new way to express this fear of missing out but have also come up with a way to avoid it.
Predictably the FOMO relates to new technology- the latest advancement may trigger this fear of you missing out on experiencing better tools, smarter insights.
How about turning the table around where you can make most use of the technological developments and stop living in the fear?
With all the talk today about DATA, business leaders are thinking about how to take advantage of key data to drive improvement.
In fact they may have a fear of missing out on data insights from their licensing programs- especially with the rapid changes and uncertainty caused by the COVID 19 crisis.
Dependable Solutions had a chance to get together with top executives from the world’s largest players to discuss leveraging data in ways that create growth, cut waste, increase customer satisfaction, or otherwise improve overall company performance.
The companies with outstanding accomplishments have business strategies and that’s a given. But do they have a data strategy in place?
Do these companies have the technology to collect, organize, structure the data—and of course have people, being the most important asset, to further analyze, argue, present, and tell a story out of the data?
Frank Masterson, retired Hallmark executive, facilitated a data-driven panel that featured the great “Scotts” of licensing, global licensing leaders Scott Goodfellow from Procter & Gamble and Scott Meczkowski from Energizer. These thought leaders shared how utilizing the most valuable asset, aka data can help us achieve No Mo FOMO.
Here are some key tactics to avoid FOMO and drive growth in your company-
Ask Questions
If you have FOMO, start asking questions. From those questions, start collecting data and look at what is going on inside your licensing program. Take a long view of what you are doing so you are not in wrong place when the pandemic is over.
It’s Not Just the Data, It’s What You Do with It
Companies must use data to their advantage. Data is not the differentiator, but it can be the transformative element for what your licensing business does. The easiest thing to do is to start collecting data.
The hard part is what you do next. How do you take data and do something actionable with it? Having the data is important, but finding the insights is invaluable.
What can you do to improve your licensing program and improve the entirety of the organization? The dataset you collect might point you to the right direction.
It is an interesting concept, across not only licensing but also marketing. We are witnessing more and more digital transformation and what you can do with data, on different e-commerce platforms across targeting folks from a media standpoint.
It is still going to be six months to a year before you have enough data to be able to use it. The baby step and we cannot stress it enough for businesses to gather metrics and data to be able to start analyzing it.
Get Ahead of What’s Coming
To get ahead, you must understand what the goal of your licensing program is and the WHY behind it. Data helps get you there.
Start the conversations with your licensees to see what is working and what isn’t. Assess areas that are not growing and learn why.
Are you facing a downfall with one of your licensees? Find out where the issue lies- is it a categorical issue? Has it got something to do with the territories?
Look at your royalty reports and drill down to SKU level performance to identify which of your product categories, channels, IPs and licensees are performing better. Make your licensees from good to great when your data set gives you insights to show- where you need to invest your time and efforts in.
Get the advantage by having your data paint the picture of what is happening. By understanding the facts versus gut feeling, you can get ahead of what is coming tomorrow.
Use Data to Maximize Growth
Netflix is a great example of showing licensees and licensors how you can use data to maximize growth. What does Netflix know about you? They know a lot.
For example, when you started watching a show to when you stopped watching, if you backed up to re-watch a scene, if you have watched scenes repeatedly or if you finished the series.
They also can focus on who you are based on the types of shows you watch. When Netflix invests in creating new content, they must make that money back.
From the data they have on their users, they invest in new shows that they can target to their customers. They use data to transform themselves, their categories, and overall, their own businesses.
Focus on What Matters
Once you start collecting data and then analyzing it, you may come to realize that it is a gold mine that you have access to, across myriad of categories of your licensing program. As much it is an eye opener, with so much data available, you might feel overwhelmed.
Focus on what matters to your business. Data is funneling into decisions for your consumer targeting. Map out what you are trying to learn and where you want to grow your business.
You will have more success sifting through data if you have a specific goal in mind.
FOMO is no more when you leverage your licensing data.