Big Data in Marketing represents a complex transition from
the old ways to a brave new world. While marketing specialists built up their
acumen through the years, it has now become possible to deduce the crucial
nuggets of leads and potential customers with ease. However, the journey
towards perfecting such an ideal system is a bit of a long one and requires a
strategic approach that looks beyond the immediate results. All that is
required is to push past the initial reluctance and a world of opportunities
beckons. At the same time, it is important that marketers are not forced into a
disconnect with their traditional marketing planning and implementation. Big
Data in Marketing is a great new tool that revs up the marketing arsenal into
greater speeds than ever conceivable previously.
Bringing Marketing Executives into engagement with Big Data
One of the major obstacles in the implementation of Big Data
in Marketing is that sales executives do not engage with the analytics. There
is a reluctance to embrace the new technology. As this McKinsey
Report of 2015 noted, lack of understanding leads to a failure in
utilization and adoption of the tools. In one case, improvement of the
interface of the system led to an improved rate of utilization. At that time, one
of the three trends that were seen as helping to break this initial barrier was
the ‘democratization’ of analytics wherein users without too much technical
immersion were becoming able to apply predictive analytics easily. The other
two were targeted solutions for specialized lines of business and easy automation
of important analytical processes. The Report suggested going in for a
scaled-up exercise through focus on areas such as pricing and credit management.
This was seen as achievable-scaling across the enterprise in contrast to the
initiation of pilots all across the board.
Analysing Customer Activities
A Forbes
article has revealed that Chinese company Tencent has the capability to
analyze its customers with 5000 tags. The company revealed that it had
identified overlaps/correlations in interests of consumers that were not
normally assumed or associated with the particular traditional target category.
The type of personality of a consumer
can be built up by picking up patterns in browsing, calling, TV viewing, in a
wider sense and in a more focused sense by Social Media activity, as this article in Nature
discusses. Products relevant to the personalities are then brought into the
ambit of the person’s digital environs. Even more organized, but without the
actual customer being directly monitored, is the profile built up by an
Advertising Agency through analysis of online behavior. This New
Yorker article gives an example where 40,000 attributes are applied to each
individual profile. Another insight from the article, though revealed in a
privacy context, is that Facebook provides advertisers with 1300 categories of
customers to target.
These are a few of the possibilities that Big Data has created
for the marketing world by way of the major multinationals. Implemented within
the laws in force and with an adherence to privacy stipulations, Big Data in
marketing has the potential to be a tool of immense value. As the New Yorker
article also reveals, programmatic algorithms are used to select the targets
for each ad with different versions of the same Ad. In the specific case cited,
it is revealed that the versions created ran into the hundreds of thousands. In
summing up, the article, an adaptation of the author’s book,” Frenemies: The
Epic disruption of the Ad Business (and Everything Else),” talks about the
potential of users opting to receive ads, while privacy concerns might be a bad
thing for the Ad Agencies. Big Data, on the whole, is a great tool for
responsible businesses in their marketing implementation. Going back to the
Tencent capability, the company has developed a Big
Data solution that serves out ads to customers that are useful to them in
their shopping outings.
Reaching out to customers
Talking straight to customers whenever it is possible is
also the way out at a time when customers are utilizing all available options
to shut
out advertising wherever it is possible. Big Data in Marketing delivers the
capability to identify the right time to target customers with the specified
mode of messaging. Some colleges in the U.S. have reached out to their students
with admission
offers on SnapChat. When it comes to devising products tailored to customer
preferences, CocaCola has used a customer-operated flavor-mixing machine to
identify the blend that customers would take to. Accordingly, it launched
a new drink. Just within a website, there are so many points of data that
can be collected and analyzed as is done by
airlines in understanding the preferences and behavior of their customers.
Devices held by staff on a plane containing all data of the flying passengers
help the staff to connect personally with the passengers. Responding to
different situations with the help of the knowledge they are presented with on
their devices leads to higher customer satisfaction. Marketing becomes more
efficient with the capability to address other needs of the customer such as
Hotel rooms etc.
Giving customers exactly what they want
Just like the CocaCola example we saw, DunkinDonuts has
created 15,000
types of coffee combinations. The company analyzes data on when and what
each customer orders and uses it to personalize features on the App so that
customers are able to quickly get exactly what they want. As customers come
back to the brand, they are offered rewards of their preferred products. The
company continues to work on its App and has identified those issues that its
customers would like to have/not have in the App.
Big Data in Marketing is all about enhancing the customer
experience while helping them get about their requirements in a systematic and
synchronized manner. It is about the streamlining of business flow, the optics
as well as the chemistry. It is a tool that marketers will love to have and
will need to build up with consistent efforts.
