Krishen Iyer on the Value and Nature of Prediction in Marketing

Nature of Prediction in Marketing: Marketing is one of the most important areas for any company to consider. It provides company and product or service information to customers. Without it, even the best products or services could get overlooked, says Krishen Iyer, Carlsbad, CA-based entrepreneur, and owner of MAIS Consulting. When a company wants to grow a larger customer base, marketing is often one of the ways it does that. But a big part of marketing is predicting what will happen next, and that’s not always easy.

According to Iyer, and others in the consulting business, being in the business of prediction isn’t a good choice right now. Why? Because it’s a potentially unreliable way to understand the market for a product or service. If a company predicts interest incorrectly, for example, it could end up with a lot of unwanted product. It may also struggle with having too many people hired to offer a service that’s not in demand. That’s not the only way prediction can go wrong, says Iyer.

Companies Need to Know What Their Customers Want

Another big problem is that companies may underestimate what the market will bear, and what people want from the company’s offerings. Not having enough of a desired product, or not having enough people to provide a requested service, can damage the reputation of a company, and lead to customer frustration. The quality of the predictions the company makes, and whether their marketing lines up with those predictions, has the potential to make or break them, says Krishen Iyer.

As the owner of MAIS Consulting, based in Carlsbad, CA, Iyer has first-hand knowledge of the value of marketing for companies that want to advance their goals and plans. When it’s done right, and when it’s mixed with proper predictions, it can be an excellent way for companies to succeed. But poor marketing is all too often the cause of serious issues for businesses. Addressing those issues can be done, but it’s easier to avoid the issues in the first place. To do that, a better understanding of prediction is needed.

Prediction Adds Value Says Krishen Iyer

Recently, unemployment numbers went down, which means that more people were working again. However, the job report from November also showed that there weren’t as many jobs added as expected. Those two things seem to contradict one another, so which one is right? Being aware of how each one of those things was predicted could help determine their accuracy. The same is true, says Krishen Iyer, for making marketing choices based on business predictions.

To determine which information is the most accurate, the business needs to know how the predictions were made. Even if the business made its own predictions, what were they based on? Did they use customer surveys, facts and figures, competitor data, or something else? Maybe they used a combination of factors, which isn’t always the best way to get truly accurate knowledge. That combination has to remain steady, or the predictions made and based on it won’t provide the right information for the future.

Krishen Iyer Sees the Concerns of Prediction in a Pandemic

Krishen Iyer knows that accurate consulting for businesses that want to market their products or services is often based on what the market is expected to do. But it’s also more than that. Consulting needs to look into everything the company has to offer, along with everything the customers of that company really want or need. Where those two areas overlap is where the company should be placing its efforts. While there are still issues of unpredictability, careful research and collaborative efforts can go a long way.

One of the biggest areas for business consulting, marketing, and planning right now, are in-person events. While these take a lot of advance planning, it’s incredibly difficult to plan anything in advance with the pandemic still hanging on. The way things change from day to day and week to week can greatly affect whether an in-person event can even safely take place. As things improve in some areas, they seem to be getting worse in others. Whether customers are comfortable is also a big part of the equation.

Seeing Ahead is Harder Than It Used to Be

Seeing months ahead isn’t realistic right now, and may not be logical or expected for some time. In some areas of the country, even seeing weeks or days ahead seems suspect. Eventually, this will change and restrictions will ease. How long it will be before that day comes, though, is another one of the questions that don’t have any good answers right now. As valuable as prediction is in marketing, who could have predicted the pandemic, and all the variants and issues that it’s created for the world?

This was something that businesspeople just didn’t see coming, says Krishen Iyer, and it’s also something that isn’t easy to predict going forward. Just when it seems like it’s getting better, there’s a new variant. When it appears as though that variant could be devastating, indications are that it’s not as strong. But that’s not a certainty, so things continue to change from day today. It’s a very uncertain time for businesses and their marketing efforts, and it looks like it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.

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