Gavin Fox Talks Marketing: BIG-Data Is Not Revolutionising Marketing

Marketers are great for coming up with buzz words. And there are always one or two new ones doing the rounds. They make us sound like we know what we’re talking about; that we are current and ‘cutting edge’. It separates the exclusive club of ‘morketeers’ from the ordinary Joe’s. If you don’t understand the latest jargon, you're not eligible for membership.

One of the buzz words around at the moment is ‘BIG-data’. Apparently it’s going to revolutionise marketing. Well, contrary to popular opinion, it's not (not by itself anyway). The fact is, data is everywhere. Technology provides marketers with the tools to capture all kinds of data on their customers. Not just around what they buy and when they buy it, but also into how they behave, what they are talking about and, perhaps even, how they are thinking.

All of this is great. In truth, however, most marketers have more data than they know what to do with. There is no benefit to having all of this data if you can’t turn it into insights. Data doesn’t inspire great marketing; insights do.

Just as much as they need great creativity, marketing teams now need real expertise in research and analytic analysis. They need people who can translate seemingly meaningless numbers into actionable insights. Finding out what is happening is not enough. Unearthing insights mean we can answer the question of why. Marketing now really is about science and art.

So, the bottom line here is this; BIG-data is not revolutionising marketing. But being able to interpret meaning from it just might. Sure any morketeer worth their salt could tell you that.