Big Data Marketing: Love & Hate
Big Data is a buzz word that has been getting a lot of love & a lot of hate. But it seems like the term is here to stay. Regardless of whether the term sits well with us or not Big Data Marketing is changing the landscape of technology, business and marketing.
In the video below we discuss how Big Data is being used to drive sales and revenue; & how "Big Data for Marketing" can be used by small businesses and startups to compete aggressively!
Watch: Big Data And Marketing Visualized
Big Data in Marketing: A Simple Explanation
Big Data — A seemingly complex term with a simple explanation! So what is it?
Put simply — It’s our ability to take massive amounts of data and derive a story from it. Now, this is really cool because up until a few years ago all this data was mostly gibberish to us. Now we can analyze this data, detect patterns & derive predictions.
But the entrance of distributed computing and parallel processing changed all of that!
Why does this matter? Well, with Big Data you can predict your customers needs, pain points & future complaints. The implications are HUGE. And can increase profits tremendously!
Big Data Marketing Examples: Walmart & Poptarts!
In 2012 Hurricane Frances was on it’s way and everyone was preparing. Walmart decided to be smart about it. While most stores were stocking up with items like Flashlights, Walmart stacked its shelves with strawberry poptarts.
Armed with terabytes of customer history data, Walmart was able wager that out of all it’s items... poptarts would be in most demand. They went ahead and increased their stockpiles by 7x —and almost sold out!
Big Data Marketing Examples: Netflix & House Of Cards!
Then we have Netflix -- who used Big Data to pretty much DESIGN the Success of the popular show “House of Cards” . They used the massive amounts of data collected over the years to guide the creative direction of the show. So strong was their confidence in the shows success, that they signed off on TWO SEASONS even before the pilot. A100 Million Dollar vote of confidence.
So how does any of this matter for your venture? Well Big NAMES aren’t the only ones capitalizing on BIG Data. Smaller companies, with small budgets are also capitalizing on Big Data.
Targeted Facebook ads are an especially good example of this. When it comes to ‘Personal’ information -- Facebook’s data collection is unmatched. Facebook uses big data marketing to predict what users will be interested in purchasing in the coming days, weeks & months.
How does it do this? By collecting massive amounts of even the most minute data — like how long your cursor hovers over a certain link.
And with with their most recent aquisition of Oculus — Facebook will now be able to track & record even how long your look at a certain object! Big Data marketing at it's finest.
This allows small businesses to cost-effectively target their audience with shocking accuracy! No longer is it a drastic advantage to afford a Super Bowl ad placement. Big Data Marketing is changing the landscape of technology and business.
Concluding Thoughts
Big Data is proving to be a game changer in business & marketing. Companies will now have the ability to forecast demand, predict buying trends, and even optimize prices automatically. These advances will have a dramatic effect on how fast the goliath companies can move on opportunities. While this may indeed be a another obstacle for the smaller companies to face, it also proves to be an area of opportunity. There is now a demand for "big data as a service" that new companies can fill.
Also See: Growth Hacker Marketing: Is It Simply BullShit?