1. 17
MARKETING WEEK JUNE 2013
16
MARKETING WEEK JUNE 2013
I don’t want to have a relationship with a
marketing department. I don’t want to be your
friend. I don’t want to engage in conversation
with you. I feel no loyalty towards you. When I
say I like you I’m not entirely sincere.
And yet I chose to share an enormous amount
of my life with you. The detail I’m able and
happy to share has grown big. Really, really big.
But understand this: my reason for sharing this
data is entirely motivated by self-interest. You
see, I know as much about you as you do about
me. I know how valuable my data can be to you.
So I expect you to use this data for my benefit.
Because you can be damn sure I will be.
This is the challenge we face. This is the
opportunity for us to seize.
Big data is the topic of the moment in the
world of marketing. As a concept, it has been
very difficult to get to grips with. The term big
data is nebulous. Most definitions of big data are
so broad they provide no real insight into the
subject. Yet there is an often overlooked truth
about big data: big data is made up of lots of
small data.
Specific and concrete
Our lives are full of small data. We generate
it constantly as we go about our lives. In the
websites we visit, location tracking on our
smartphones, the time-stamp on our receipts, our
Facebook updates. The jigsaw pieces of our lives
that allow a marketer to better understand the
individual’s personal context into which we plan
to act. Small data is specific and concrete. We can
understand it; where it comes from, what it says,
how we can make good use of it.
I can think of no better way to illustrate the
value of this specificity than with a specific
example.
Importance of small data
Recently, while browsing an online article on the
10 best gaming gadgets, I found myself confronted
with banner adverts for dieting, depilation
and Disney. A baffling mixture of seemingly
randomly selected products with no conceivable
relationship to the subject matter of the page.
But there is small data associated with this page
that is of enormous potential value. For, as with
any well-designed website, the page was loaded
with key words. Those key words serve a useful
purpose. They are there to help us (and Google)
find the page. Eight simple phrases: wireless
technology, Google Android, gaming, Apple
Inc, information technology, computers, Apple
Mac, and computer accessories. Eight phrases
that tell you everything about the content of the
page. Eight phrases that bear no relationship
to dieting, depilation and Disney. Eight small,
specific, concrete pieces of data that when visiting
that page tell you my current interests. Not in the
recent past, but right now. Eight pieces of data that
marketers should use to determine if an offer for
depilation is likely to be relevant to the reader.
Unlike insight derived from a person’s
demographic profile or prior purchases (which
tends to be relatively stable) situational context is
by its very nature short-lived. So when situational
context and a customer’s known preferences
coincide with a product or service we wish
to provide, the confluence of circumstances
demands that we should act. Such opportunities
may not long persist. Mid-morning coffee
becomes lunchtime sandwiches; the laptop
is turned off and the TV is turned on. People
move on with their lives and the situation
changes around them with surprising rapidity.
To recognise and seize this moment when our
relevance to the customer is at its highest is the
key to success.
Changing the way we think
Access to these streams of small data about an
individual’s ever-changing situation allows us to
change the way we market. To be truly effective
we may also need to change the way we think.
Marketing in this environment is no longer
about delivering a mass message according to
the schedule we determine. It is not based on
what we knew, rather it is based on what we know
and it is entirely determined by the customer.
Not explicitly, however. We should not sit back
and wait for a call that may never come. Like a
good butler we should be invisible, observing
and waiting in anticipation of the moment when
we can step forward to serve, even before the
recipient realises their need. Discrete, appropriate
and timely. Not intrusive, overeager or too
frequent. Not pretending our relationship is
more than a potentially valuable adjunct to the
customer’s life.
To make effective use of this small data we must
understand our customers. The journey they take
in deciding to make use of a product or service.
Rarely simple and linear, hidden within the weave
of such decisions are patterns and connections.
A time, a location, a website visited, a call made,
small pieces of data that in isolation may be
missed, but combined act as a signal of potential
intent. The challenge at the heart of big data is
not then one of technology and calculation, but
rather one of imagination. We need to swap our
focus from the sea of data and instead focus on
the quantum of our customers’ lives and where we
fit within them.
I don’t want to have a relationship with a
marketing department. But I will continue to
share my own personal small data with you, so
that you understand when input may be useful,
and equally when it is not relevant in the hope
that you can serve me better.
Henley Road
Marlow
Buckinghamshire
SL7 2EB
Telephone: 01628 486933
Email: charles.randall@sas.com
Website: www.sas.com/uk
Dr Charles Randall
Solutions marketing
manager
SAS
The concept of big data is hard to
quantify, so it’s good to remember
that big data is made up of small
data, says Dr Charles Randall of SAS
Big data,
small data
Expert guide:The Marketing Mix | Data
Marketers may need
to change the way
they think in order to
be truly effective