marketing-science-interview

Marketing Science by Shaina Boone [interview]

“You have to be an evangelist. Measurement can’t go anywhere without somebody first evangelizing it.”

Shaina Boone has been at Critical Mass for five years. She was a programmer for seven years, and has been an analyst for eight years. Critical Mass serves over twenty Fortune 100 companies.

Q1. What is Marketing Science?
A. Marketing Science is a term that comes from the universities. For example, Critical Mass often works with the Wharton School of Business (University of Pennsylvania) to determine larger trends that are reflected in analytics. Boone says her part of the work is “more marketing than science.”

Q2. What advice can you give analysts who are trying to push their (data-driven) agenda?
A. The most powerful way to push the data-driven agenda into a company is to find a ‘executive sponsor,’ someone in upper management who is on board.

Q3. What is one tip you would give someone going into the field of analytics?
A. You’ll need three basic skills:

  1. Strategy
  2. Technology
  3. Analysis

Generally, analysts need to have a natural knack for two of them, and then the third can usually be easily taught, with technology being the easiest to teach later. For those looking to manage analysis teams, it’s crucial to do all three well.

Q3. What one tip would you give a CEO on building a data-driven culture in their company?
A. You have to believe in it yourself, assess the current company culture, look at the budget, and to hold people accountable by giving bonuses based on achieving or exceeding set targets.

Shaina Boone, Vice President of Marketing Science, Critical Mass

Shaina Boone Marketing Science

Closing in on her fifth year at Critical Mass, Shaina Boone’s duties as VP of Marketing Science include business development, department management, and measurement program development, cross-agency collaboration, measurement strategy and team oversight for Fortune 50+ companies. She is also responsible for marketing mix strategy/analysis, neuromarketing, RFM/ROI, social, strategy and measurement program development for companies such as Nissan, Infiniti, HP, Humana, SUPERVALU, Pampers, Moen, adidas, Clorox, Rolex, and the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. Shaina is a WAA member and has taken one course in the UC Irvine Web Intelligence program and completed the UBC Award of Achievement in Web Analytics program. You can follow her at Twitter @Shainaboone

Daniel Waisberg

Daniel Waisberg is the Owner of Conversion Journey, a consultancy that provides insights on improving the performance of websites. He is also the founder & Editor of Online Behavior. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and member of the Advisory Council of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit. You can follow him on Google+ or on Twitter @danielwaisberg.