I’m Daran J. Johnson and I have been helping Fortune 500 & SMB CPG, ecommerce, & retail organizations with marketing insights since 2005. I have worked as a consultant and an internal resource. For nearly 14 years I helped run a successful Digital Marketing & Analytics company (Fujo, Inc.) where I led a team of marketers & analysts. During this time, I demonstrated how best practices in this field can lead to success.
Analytics & Coding
Part of best practices is creating reproducible and easily shareable analyses. I have found that mastering analytical programming languages is essential to this process. It empowers us to generate insights that truly make a difference.
I have a particular affinity for the R programming language. This is due to its intuitive usability, powerful visualization capabilities, and robust native statistical functions. A statistical programming language like R greatly expand the possibilities within analytics. This allows us to push the boundaries of what can be achieved.
R provides fully code-based analytics, which means any analysis you perform can be easily updated and rerun. This approach simplifies documentation and allows for quick adjustments to your analysis. This ensures that your insights remain current and adaptable.
I have also been working with Python more recently. Python has become a favored language for data engineering, but it can also be used for analysis. I find R to be more intuitive for me, but I am enjoying working with and understanding the nuances of the language.
Analytics Platforms
I have been deeply involved with Google’s Cloud Platform (GCP) since the early days. Today, these tools offer an affordable and powerful ecosystem for capturing data, funneling it into BigQuery, and creating insightful analyses. Additionally, you can seamlessly analyze data stored in BigQuery from platforms such as GA4, Google Ads, and other data sources.
I’ve discovered that R and GCP complement each other exceptionally well. Over the years, I’ve developed numerous marketing analytics & research projects that provide valuable insights for the organizations I have had the pleasure to work with. These projects have empowered stakeholders with deeper insights into the performance of their online, marketing & sales activities. I’m continually exploring new ways these platforms can work together to enhance our understanding of business performance.
Marketing Insights
Regardless of coding or platforms, the main focus of marketing analytics should be the results – the ability to tell the story and provide valuable insights. This is done through asking the right questions, formulating the right answers and communicating the results in the right way to the right people. Doing this requires strategic communication skills and visualization expertise.
I’ve spent years honing my skills in these areas and I am still learning all the time. Presenting to technical & non-technical groups, executives and department leaders have helped me to understand the best way to tell the story and provide valuable insights to the organizations I have worked with.
Continuous Learning
I also love to learn and I never stop pursuing knowledge. While it’s challenging to stay on top of every new development; I have prioritized growth and adaptability as the landscape evolves.
Website Focus
This website is about sharing my knowledge of data-driven marketing insights for CPG, ecommerce, & retail and the best practices that can make it successful. Any article focused on analytical coding will have the complete code available on my GitHub repository.
Other Things I Do
I’m an avid runner and Strava has a great running group for R programmers called The RStats Running Club, which I am active on. If you run and you like R (or Python :-), please join.
I have also volunteered my time to assist non-profits with their marketing analytics needs, which has been incredibly rewarding and allowed me to connect with some truly wonderful people.
Contact Me
To reach out to me, you can message me on LinkedIn or email me at daran at daranondata.com.
A Couple Points About This Website
- All opinions expressed are my own and do not reflect anyone else’s opinions.
- I use a few analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to monitor the website. These tools may place cookies on your browser and retrieve information on general things such as city, technology & number of visits. I do not use this information to market to you. You can check out my Privacy Policy to learn more.