The power of big data to unlock new brand experiences
By Landor
So much of what I read about consumer-facing brands and big data strikes me as little more than navel-gazing. We’ve seen B2B businesses such as IBM implement big data solutions that help entire cities better plan for the future. But, as Landor recently found in a study of CMOs, there are few strong examples of consumerfacing brands that have truly grasped how big data can benefit their organization and their customers.
As big data emerged, organizations scrambled to make sense of their data assets and began to focus on how many they had, how they could improve them, and how they could get more of them. This resoundingly inward-looking exercise led to infinite talk of potential and opportunity— but potential for whom?
Picture the scene. It’s, say, 1947, and a crowd of executives is huddled in a boardroom. They’re strategizing how to sell more products. One especially obnoxious boss yells out, “They’ll buy whatever we tell them to!” Snickers fill the room as the executives craft plan after plan to trick consumers into buying more of what they don’t need.
Okay, big data might not be that unscrupulous, but the talk about privacy concerns and sales predictions may make consumers feel that they’ve headed back to a time in which crafty corporations and sneaky executives are plotting how best to use information to manipulate their behavior. One can’t help but feel that if corporations’ discussion of the subject continues to be of such a self-centered nature, consumers will understandably feel insecure about what big data means for them.
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