The continued growth of technology will initiate new marketing trends to be used in the future. As the use of technology grows, so does the amount of data. This large collection of data has been labeled Big Data. “Simply put, big data refers to a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using traditional data processing applications”. (Hollison 2015) Data professionals are being trained to help structure this data so it can be analyzed to gain insights.
Big Data is affecting many industries including the marketing industry. The increase of data presents challenges, but also presents opportunities. Big data will change the strategies implemented by marketers. “Similarly, marketing professionals have made huge bets on brand advertising and air cover campaigns with little to no empirical data to support their spending”. (Hollison 2015) Strategies may become more reliant on leverage insights from big data.
The biggest opportunity that big data provides marketers is personalization. Big data can enable companies to make commerce experiences feel smaller and more intimate for consumers. Consumers’ expectations continues to grow and expect relevancy. These consumers expect brands to treat them as individuals.
There have been some companies that have used big data to provide personalization. Amazon has used it towards personalizing its shopping experience for customers. The problem is some marketers believe that big data is just fade and there is no need to embrace the use of it. A reason why certain marketers are not embracing big data is due to the perception that big data will kill creativity. “Die-hard designers will argue that creativity is subjective: a conceptual art form that can’t be shaped or quantified”. (Adestra 2013) To a certain extent, this a strong argument. There have been plenty of campaigns that experienced success through being developed based on creativity and emotion. Certain creative campaigns have driven brand awareness and conversions without the need of any data. However, these creative campaigns might have even performed better if ads were targeted towards core consumer segments which would feature tailored narratives dependent on a segment’s demographics, buying behavior, goals.
Big Data can serve as an analytical catalyst to drive creative campaigns. Data provides quantitative intelligence that can help creative campaigns. Gaining deeper insights will help create deeper engagements with consumers.
References
Beer, J. (2015, March 4). 25 Predictions For What Marketing Will Look Like In 2020.
Hollison, M. (2015, January 9). 5 Ways Big Data Will Change Sales and Marketing in 2015.
Saracino, A. (2013, April 13). Interesting Ways Businesses Use Big Data to Improve Personalization.
Gupta, A. (2015, April 3). Three Emerging Themes of Big Data Analytics.
Big Data: A ‘cure’ or ‘curse’ for creativity? – Adestra Post. (2013, November 12)
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