What devices have you bought in the last two years? How many times
have you posted to social media sites, shared digital photos or video,
completed online transactions or checked in on your mobile? The list
goes on.
And marketers are loving it. Numbers have become sexy. I’m finally proud to admit my years of studying statistics at uni. The geeks just may be taking over.
Because Valentine’s Day is almost here, we’ve listed 14 reasons to fall in love with big data.
But first, let’s start with a definition. Big data refers to data sets whose size (volume), complexity (variability), and rate of growth (velocity) make them difficult to be speedily captured, managed, processed or analysed by conventional technologies and tools, such as relational databases and desktop statistics.*
The fact is that organisations that capture, process and analyse their data are able to gain a more complete understanding of their customers and to better target their marketing and product development efforts with minimal guesswork.
Now on to some of the reasons we think marketers should fall in love with big data:
1. Companies, for example in FMCG, that rely on consumer choices have uncovered a new speed due to big data. Quick thinking executives can be more responsive and get to market quicker with new products. The marketing world was stunned when Orio came out with a ‘You can still dunk in the dark’ in immediate response to the black out during the super bowl this week. (wonder if we’ll see a ‘Gangnam Style’ breakfast cereal any time soon?)
2. Don’t get left behind, now is the time. It is thought that 90% of today’s data has been created in the last two years.
3. Call centre information coupled with social media content means service-oriented businesses can better understand customer sentiment, and provide a more efficient, proactive and valuable service.
4. The popularity of smart phones and devices with GPS functionality means advertisers are starting to better target future customers who are in proximity of their store or location.
5. Big data helps big companies make big decisions. Think ‘Oracle acquiring Endeca’ and ‘IBM acquiring Vivisimo’ big.
6. Analysing big data isn’t just a win for marketing, it also helps with risk and fraud detection in sectors that rely on online financial transactions, such as shopping and banking.
7. The HR sector claims it helps them make better people decisions. Xerox were able to halve their call centre attrition rate by hiring the right candidate to start with, for example.
8. The military believe that data analytics will help military leaders shape and guide battle plans. Makes sense given they also have access to things like sensors and cameras.
9. Some believe that we can predict the short-term future by real-time analysis of social media – for example during the 2012 Eurovision song contest, audiences knew Sweden had won while their song was being performed, due to real-time analysis of tweet rate and sentiment.
10. Big data is versatile and doesn’t have a shelf life. Since we don’t know exactly what the world will be like well into the future, and storage is relatively cheap, storing filtered data for the future might just become a B2Bs competitive advantage.
11. Opinion mining helps businesses with new product launches or company hiccups to see what their audience is thinking. They can create a ‘sentiment index’ to know whether the product they are about to launch is more likely to be a success or a failure, for example.
12. Big data combines perfectly with digital marketing and measuring ROI. Pay-per-click campaigns give an exact measure on what we’re spending and where customers go online, for example. We can use data to learn, change, improve. Particular when audiences are providing the data themselves by choice!
13. Big data and numbers alone is just a lump of clay – the magic of the human touch is still needed to analyse it and mould it into pottery to make the right decisions (why am I reminded about that scene from ‘Ghost’?).
14. Could help you win an election, apparently. Many claim that the 100-strong tech team on the Obama campaign made the difference in reaching potential voters through big data and social media.
It may seem like a daunting task, but the first step for organisations is to understand what data they have and which data is useful. The next step is to engage with the right analytics technology, balancing the business needs with cost and security.
Original Source : http://blog.bullseye.com.au/14-reasons-why-you-need-to-love-big-data
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