Analytics
News, events, thought leadership and more.
I should start with the fact that I have a great deal of respect for what Seth Godin says about marketing; not the least of which that he was nice enough to endorse a book my wife wrote on small business branding. However, in his July 28th blog on Big Data in marketing I believe Seth missed the point on analytics and here are three reasons why:
1. Big Data Analytics Should be About Excellence Not Average
The core premise of Seth’s blog is that the use of Big Data pushes everything to the average. I too am skeptical about taking the concept of the focus group and applying that to all the possible information we have about a consumer, but Big Data analytics should really be about the removal of the average by actually understanding specifically what happens when we put something in the market place. Understanding what people say on social media, what they take action on, what they don’t. That understanding, at the macro sense stops us from doing ineffective marketing over and over and over again.
2. Big Data Analytics (done well) is About the Future Way More Than it is About the Past
Seth worries that Big Data is about analyzing the past. The past is an indicator of the future, not the cause, and good marketing analysts and decision makers know that. Mixing correlation and causation is user error, not a reason to eliminate certain data or analytics. Using Big Data, in the context of all the relevant data, to drive predictive analytics, customer behavior, or process outcomes is great marketing. To use that data to actually understand the wants, needs, and opinions of our customers, and make decisions on that, is even better marketing. The past indicates what will happen in the future but using predictive analytics helps bring more flashes of insight to more people.
3.The Individual Flash of Insight Still Drives Value in the World of Big Data
Committees have always been the bane of creativity, but the idea that Big Data analytics, or any type of analytics, destroy the opportunity for an individual to produce great work within a larger organization is insane to me. I speak with our users every day, and see that they are the people moving their businesses forward with insight and clarity. People like Greg Bucko at Southern States, Drew Moore at Great Clips, David Laberge at Ford, and Marshall Jacobowitz at Time Warner Cable defy this assumption every single day. In fact we describe these people as Data Artisans for that exact reason.
It’s All about the Value
There is real value in questioning the hype around Big Data, but to dismiss the thoughtful and insightful analysis of what customers want, need, and even don’t need, has real value for marketing professionals.
We want to get that value into the hands of as many people as possible. Check out our page on Humanizing Big Data.
Paul Ross
VP of Product & Industry Marketing Alteryx
