Live from FOCI 2013: Transforming Weather Data into Consumer Insights

Every day, we are affected by weather. We check it 3 times a day or more, or simply intuitively. Its more important than our social media feeds, but it drives purchase intent too! It affects everything encompassing:


Your commute
What you buy
What you do
Your health
Where you eat
How you feel
What you wear

The opportunity here is that weather is measureable and predictable. Weather is locally specific, too. It s not just the weather that influences consumer behavior, but its what is going to happen with the weather.

Its fascinating that marketing is needed as an adaptive solution, which cannot be fixed from an advertising or media perspective, the the key is to understand how you can leverage media and technology to get the word out to people. That is, keeping it local and relevant.

Its quite simple: you know how weather affects consumer behavior in the past. You know what the weather is going to be like. So marketers must intuitively put the two together to come up with an adaptive marketing strategy.

A simple and intuitive thought. Which makes so much sense!

Sourabh Sharma,
Communication & Social Media Research Expert at SKIM, an international
consultancy and marketing research agency, has a background in engineering,
marketing and finance from the University of Pennsylvania, and the Wharton
School and Rotterdam School of Management. Having worked in marketing and
product development at L'Oreal, followed by a stint in management consulting,
he now passionately enjoys the world of social media, and can be found on every
platform with his alias sssourabh. He is a food critic and a fashion writer,
and documents these alongside strategy on his blog called 3FS. He may be reached at
s.sharma@skimgroup.com. Follow him on @sssourabh.