About Forrester
Forrester Research, Inc. is an independent research company that provides pragmatic and forward-thinking advice to global leaders in business and technology.

Vikram leads the forecast team, which is responsible for producing all forecasts within M&S research. He is focused on the consumer commerce areas including retail, travel, and financial services. He is keenly involved in understanding the evolution of consumers' online behavior and technology adoption.
Vikram came to Forrester Research through its acquisition of Jupiter Research, where he started in July 2000. Prior to Jupiter, Vikram worked at IRI, a leading market research company, where he worked closely with some of the leading CPG companies.
Vikram often appears on TV, radio, and comments in the press on the US online retail and travel industry. He has been quoted in The L.A. Times, Business Week, The New York Times, CNN Money, and American Banker. He has also appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and Radio, NPR, Fox Business News, and ABC.
Vikram earned an M.B.A. from Virginia Tech and a B.Com from N.M College in Mumbai, India.
Mastering The Customer Data Flow Requires Marketing And IT To Join Forces
Today's marketing organization must use technology to deliver compelling brand experiences and drive business growth. Today's IT organizations must tune their efforts to needs of the business. This...
Performance Management: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
Successful optimization of the marketing mix requires careful coordination of multiple data streams, generation of insights from marketing mix models, and careful review of budget allocation...
Business Case: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
Marketing mix modeling is a powerful tool that provides a holistic understanding of marketing performance across channels. With marketing mix modeling, marketers can positively affect business...

The Impact Of Media Fragmentation Patterns On Communication Strategy
Consumers across Europe are embracing new media platforms that change the way they consume content. This year's European Technographics® data shows a continuous growth in the amount of time...
No, I’m not Australian . . . at Forrester, "boomerangs" are analysts that, after leaving the research team for a stint in the "real world," have decided to re-join. Clients and...
What were the selection criteria for inclusion in Forrester's September 21, 2011, "The Forrester Wave: Marketing Mix Modeling, Q3 2011" report.
The rapid adoption of new digital technologies by consumers is pushing marketing and IT closer together. Two companies that Forrester spoke with took very different approaches to the challenge of how...
Loyalty Marketing Must Take The Brand Beyond Points And Programs
Most chief marketing officers (CMOs) have a tactical view of loyalty marketing. They tell us that their approach, while necessary, has unclear objectives and focuses too much on short-term financial...
CMOs Must Take A More Active Role In Business And Technology Strategy
Forrester Research and Heidrick & Struggles recently conducted a global survey of nearly 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs). In this report, you will find out how these CMOs view their relationship...

Success Will Depend On Measuring The Handoff Between Phases
To get the best returns from the adoption of a customer-centric approach to marketing, Forrester believes that marketers must make the shift from the traditional marketing funnel to the customer life...

With the increasing richness and complexity that digital channels and social media bring to the marketing equation, senior marketers increasingly realize that, to be relevant in shaping their...
Assessing Your Marketing-IT Partnership Readiness To Develop A Custom Action Plan
In the future, only companies that understand and anticipate their customers' needs and can consistently deliver unique, tailored customer experiences will be able to attract and retain loyal...

Organization: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
Most marketers have earned their stripes through corporate work experience and business-school training that takes a top-down linear approach to marketing planning and optimization. Today, the...
Last week, The New York Times broke the news that Google is launching a new eCommerce platform targeting fashion brands: Boutiques.com: http://nyti.ms/9DlCu. (Disclaimer: I worked for four...
Forrester believes that chief marketing officers (CMOs) must abandon the century-old marketing/sales funnel and embrace the customer life cycle in order to better manage their customers' interaction...

Read this report if you want to understand how to measure the effectiveness of a branded content strategy along the stages of the customer life cycle. This report will help you define the most...
Strategic Plan: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
Marketing mix optimization — the practice of using data-driven insights to strategically allocate and optimize marketing budgets across channels — is a powerful tool to help marketers...
Tools And Technology: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
Marketing mix modeling is undergoing a transformation as marketers increasingly demand that vendors provide solutions that can be updated frequently, easily aggregate data streams, provide...
While marketers spend most of their efforts and resources on top-of-mind channels like the Web or TV, two-thirds of consumers report lackluster interactions with brands, leading to low levels of...
Marketing mix modeling solutions have been around for quite some time, providing marketers in several key categories with complex statistical models that aim to find the correlation between past...
Over the past few years, the rise of the always addressable customer combined with a challenging economic environment and stagnant markets has created a perfect storm — challenging...
This model allows you to assess your IT/marketing partnership readiness along the three critical dimensions of people, process, and technology. Use this model to identify strengths and weaknesses of...

Executive Overview: The Marketing Mix Optimization Playbook
When making their investment decisions across the marketing mix, senior marketers face the constant challenge of coping with the proliferation of communication and engagement platforms while facing...

Companies are grappling to maintain their traditional sources of competitive advantage in the age of the customer — a world where empowered consumers, commoditized products, and intense...