In the interview with Marc Fischer, Chairman of the Board and CEO of mergedmedia AG
Who hasn’t heard the stories of magicians or other mythical creatures gazing into a crystal ball to predict the future? But what if digitalization, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI) suddenly produced a crystal ball—and thus actually enabled digital market research at the touch of a button? One thing is clear: whoever possesses knowledge of people’s needs gains a huge advantage and thus the fundamental prerequisite for truly successful digitalization of marketing and sales. In past issues, we’ve already learned a great deal about artificial intelligence, big data, and their applications. However, the answers from Marc Fischer, Chairman of the Board and CEO of mergedmedia AG, left us in the editorial team more than just amazed. In this exciting interview, you’ll learn more about the use of AI in market-need analysis, reliable predictions of future consumer behavior, and supported content marketing for successful marketing and sales strategies. We promise not to exaggerate when we say that this interview offers a glimpse into the future.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Mr. Fischer, your company has been developing online shops for B2B and B2C sectors for more than 15 years. You yourself operate more than 20 of your own online shops. What inspired you to develop software that focuses on real predictions?
Marc Fischer: E-commerce isn’t as simple as it was 15 years ago! Competition is fierce. In almost every product and topic segment, there are already well-established websites and shops. We therefore need to find “truffle pieces” to be successful. That’s exactly why we originally developed “praidict” for our own internal use. The results were so exciting—and our budget for new online shops and products so limited—that we’ve been offering the software as a SaaS solution to companies for the past year. It’s been a great success.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: In the announcement, we made a lot of promises. In a few words, what is the actual USP of your “praidict” product?
Marc Fischer: Imagine being able to gain knowledge about the exact demand for any product, any product idea, or any topic. You can easily view seasonality over the past 48 months and predict trends for the next 12–24 months on a monthly basis. You can capture the precise motivations of your target group and learn what truly drives market success or failure—differentiated both regionally and globally. That’s a few more words… but that’s what it’s all about.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Your list of references reads like a “Who’s Who” of major brand names. Can your software be applied to all product categories, or are there technical limitations due to an insufficient data basis?
Marc Fischer: That was the big question for us even during development. Since we also operate B2B online shops and, based on experience, demand in B2B is lower than in B2C (though the shopping cart or frequency is often higher), we hoped to obtain reliable data in this segment as well. And yes, it works. We have since opened three more B2B online shops because we can identify truffle pieces, strategies, and simply successful derivations even here. So there are no restrictions – even in the narrowest niches, we have data.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Which areas of application can be analyzed and predicted with your tool?
Marc Fischer: We can practically cover all necessary areas of application within a company. This ranges from trend scouting, revising regional assortments or purchasing and assortment policies, product and private label development, optimizing service offerings, of course marketing and sales, all the way to annual business planning and early warning systems.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Where do you source the data that the system uses not only to analyze past demand and consumer behavior but also to look into the future?
Marc Fischer: We access all online-available data sources and can correlate them with third-party data such as purchasing power, economic data, and even weather conditions. It becomes extremely exciting when we uncover correlations between our praidict market demand data and internal data, such as sales and turnover figures, but also contract terminations, etc. This provides very helpful insights for companies to benefit both strategically and operationally. All data is continuously analyzed and fed into the system. This results in a permanent comparison between the demand predicted by "artificial intelligence" and what actually occurs. This ongoing data comparison makes praidict increasingly better.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The software is certainly not trivial. Can you briefly explain how it works and how the individual data sources contribute to the result?
Marc Fischer: All available data is generated from a so-called “seed keyword” from all relevant sources and loaded into our software. There, trillions of data points are structured in a way that is understandable for humans, organized according to what we call “mindsets” — i.e., the needs of target groups. We can then examine these data points at the product, brand, or thematic levels and even zoom in to the smallest motivation driving the target group to act or want something. All additional information about trends, seasonality, future developments, the channels where the target group is present, regional differences in demand, competitors already active in these markets and their market share, right down to the “sales funnel” — i.e., knowing which mindsets allow me to reach which target group at the right time and in the right status according to the classic AIDA model (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) — helps me do the right thing. All data contribute to this, because viewed individually, they are of little value, but collectively and in their respective contexts, they are pure gold!
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: What questions can your tool answer, and what level of accuracy do you typically achieve?
Marc Fischer: As a rule, we are able to predict demand trends for products, brands, and topics up to 24 months in advance. This applies worldwide, in every country, with an accuracy of around 96%. Our customers are thus able to immediately capture the concrete demand of their target group for products, services, brands, etc. It is important to understand that our customers can use this to identify correlations between products, services, brands, and topics, thereby gaining a knowledge advantage and recognizing actual market drivers. This is important for them to position themselves more strategically and derive the right measures operationally.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: So here we really do have the crystal ball we promised at the beginning! That sounds truly exciting. Marketing would love to know who wants to buy what, when, and where. Does this mean that you can already determine the right communication channel in advance for maximum sales success?
Marc Fischer: Exactly. The predictions are now so precise that you can achieve maximum results with minimal effort. This knowledge advantage over the competition means, among other things, being two to three steps ahead in the highly competitive retail e-commerce sector. Manufacturers use praidict to better understand the actual target group and align their marketing measures so that the target group wants their products! That’s how you build a brand today. This helps large, established companies reach younger target groups again and allows new brands to position themselves much better, bypassing the dinosaurs…
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: If customers process your software and the associated information correctly, what is ultimately the decisive advantage?
Marc Fischer: Our customers are able to use our software to deploy their advertising budgets much more efficiently and effectively, deriving and managing concrete recommendations for action, for example for social media, performance, organic and classic marketing campaigns. By using the right affiliates in the relevant areas, they can naturally significantly increase sales. By identifying all relevant market participants and their relevance in the specific segments, they obtain robust competitive analyses. That’s a major advantage. And finally, as manufacturers or suppliers of products or services, they can launch the right campaigns at the ideal time with the highest possible probability of success via the right channel, thereby significantly increasing sales figures. These are just “some” examples for marketing & sales. For product development, category management, business development, risk analysis, digital strategies, etc., there are also many perspectives in each case. Always based on what my target group really wants—that’s what it’s all about!
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: One final question about the project process: What information do customers need to provide in order to start a project with you?
Marc Fischer: That’s the great thing about it: All we need from our customers is the information about which topic and in which country it applies. We take care of the rest with praidict. So we don’t need access to customer systems. That means we can get started right away!
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: That sounds easy to implement. From what budget can we start looking into the crystal ball together?
Marc Fischer: praidict works based on data. What’s crucial is the volume of data to be processed. For a startup with 3–5 products or services, this is a significantly smaller scope than for a retailer with 80,000 products. The amount of data determines the price. So it starts at just €1,000 with clear results and “praidictions”…
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: I think your solution offers many companies an exciting and very informative way to effectively implement digitalization in marketing and sales. Thank you very much for this valuable conversation.
Marc Fischer: Thank you!