True Data: Unlock the Power of Purchasing Behavior Data

Though data is often considered as “the new oil” powering the global economy, it is widely acknowledged that all companies across the globe have not equally benefitted from data. For long, big data marketing had been reserved for large companies and organizations only, as the expensive systems and experts were out of small enterprises’ reach. The high costs associated with the technology impeded them from unearthing value from unstructured data to modernize their operations.

All that changed in the year 2000 when True Data, the largest purchasing behavior data holder in Japan, entered the big data market.

“From small to large companies, SMEs to local government organizations, everyone stands to benefit from our big data marketing tools and consulting services,” says Yonekura Hiroyuki, CEO, True Data, a pioneer that helps businesses harness the value of big data by combining various datasets such as payment and weather. “We, at True Data, take insights from our huge pool of data and provide them to our clients in a usable form,” he adds.

With an aim to bring companies and organizations closer to the “truth of consumers” by using data, the company has designed its big data marketing tools with easy-to-use UI, advanced analytics logic, and swift processing capabilities.

True Data’s capabilities best speak through its flagship product, Eagle Eye, which is deployed as a SaaS for FMCG companies. Having garnered a huge database for the past three years, today, Eagle Eye serves as one of the high-performance purchase behavior analysis tools used for marketing by approximately 100 companies, including global consumer goods manufacturers. This kind of advanced analytical capabilities and data reliability gives True Data a competitive edge in the market.

In addition to building a SaaS for FMCG companies, True Data provides SaaS to retailers and helps them to analyze their customer purchasing behavior data. It also enables retailers to sell their customer purchasing database to manufacturers.

The cherry on top: this SaaS product can be flexibly customized for each retail company to provide them with operational support and training for promoting utilization.

The panel data installed in SaaS products are built using a two-way process where True Data receives ID-POS data from retailers based on a “CRM partnership program,” and, in lieu of that, equips the latter with customer purchasing analysis support and tools. Hiroyuki explains, “By integrating the ID-POS data, we build panel data for consumer purchasing behavior, which is a result of continuous data-gathering over a period of ten years. Through the CRM partner program, retailers can also analyze their customer characteristics and develop their marketing strategies by comparing their data with the panel data that we build.”

With the increasing inclination toward using big data among Tier 1 companies, the ripple effects are felt across industries—with many of them choosing True Data as their partner in their big data journey. For example, with global giants including Nestlé Japan and Unilever Japan, in its client base, True Data has also amassed several successes to its credit. In an incident, one of True Data’s clients was able to create success stories in digital marketing, within a reasonable budget, using True Data’s SaaS, which combines cloud technology and analytical expertise. The SaaS also simplified the use of data marketing for staff members, and consequently, the marketing module changed from being qualitative data-based to both qualitative- and quantitative data-based.

That’s not all; True Data’s service is not designed to benefit only businesses. The company has published a free online service titled “urecon.jp” for individuals to learn more about big data. To spread the good word about big data marketing, True Data has developed a data marketer training program for students and corporate staff who are not specialized in data analysis. In fact, the Japanese firm plans on making further market transformations by developing innovative technologies and ushering in more knowledge and know-how at an industry-leading level. True Data’s special interest in contributing to the sustainable development of the society, along with its stakeholders, is also an aspect that can’t be overlooked.

Moving forward, in its core business, True Data—a purchasing behavior data holder—plans to act as a catalyst that would connect the customer data held by different organizations. Dedicated to simplifying the access to data, the company also aims to contribute to the revitalization of SMEs and local economies, by popularizing data marketing. Hiroyuki concludes, “As industry veterans, we envision the function of data connection emerging as a service offering at a global scale. We look forward to a day when we would be able to connect Japanese purchasing data and the field of data marketing will expand dramatically— collected from both urban and rural markets—with overseas companies.” True Data also plans to expand the sales of its solutions by leveraging local purchasing data to the overseas nations.