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The Power of Big Data in Marketing
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2018-10-24
By K. Becker
 
Nowadays, the term Big Data is used on a regular basis and literally refers to large amounts of data. Big Data analysis makes use of this data with the innovative technology of machine learning, or self-learning algorithms, to gain a transparent overview of ongoing business processes. Its goal is to uncover underlying patterns and trends.
Indeed, if Big Data is analysed properly (read more about it in a previous blog on Pitfalls of Data Analytics), it gives an insight into previously hidden information and generates comprehensive knowledge about market players, especially about consumers and their buying behaviour. The well-known philosopher Francis Bacon has stated that “knowledge itself is power†(click here for the Wikipedia Article). It leads to an information advantage for those companies who make sense of Big Data. That is exactly where the results of a thorough analysis of already existing data become interesting for marketing professionals.
As it is the major goal of a company’s marketing activities to shape market developments and affect single market players – why shouldn’t they use these additional insights to take advantage of it? After all, Big Data analysis affects business decisions, since it provides a helpful tool to find out what the consumer really wants and needs, and how to address her/him appropriately. As a consequence, advances in data analysis such as machine learning, paved the way for new developments in digital marketing. Based on the results from predictive analytics, it has become the main objective to provide the consumer with prescriptive recommendations.
It is no longer a secret that our actions have become far more predictive and transparent. But what does it mean for us if a company seems to know what we want before we come to that conclusion on our own? Take, for instance, personalised ads. Who doesn’t know the phenomenon of searching for a specific kind of product, let’s say a winter jacket, by clicking on some related links and later coming across them in corresponding search requests? Certainly, personalised information is of greater interest to us than any random advertisement. Nevertheless, it aims at anticipating our behaviour and discovering our inner perception for the means of affecting influence. From a psychological point of view, the concept of priming offers a good explanation: our cognitive processing, which serves as a basis for our purchasing decision, is influenced by the constant, prior presentation of what a company believes to be our desire.
The concept of consumer behaviour is made up of many subjective components, among them attitudes, emotions, and the motivation to satisfy needs. However, it becomes obvious that our surroundings and the information we are exposed to, also play a major role. As technical innovation, including the analysis of Big Data, is part of our modern life, we should always critically question its underlying aim and define our own point of view – even though that might lead to the application of an ad blocker in the future.
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