Big data brands
The modern brand faces many challenges. In today’s world consumers exist in multiple locations, across many devices and they have different expectations of what a brand should be.
The modern consumer has set the bar pretty high. Brands need to keep up with consumer’s fast-changing needs and desires.
From personalization to the user interface, the consumer has demanded that brands can adapt and communicate with each consumer on an individual level.
Information should be the heart and soul of a brand. Big data is helping to achieve these goals and create a new kind of brand.
In this way, data is becoming the new brand.
Why is big data important?
Most brands realise that data is important to the success of their business. But the brands that are really at the forefront of the digital revolution are the ones that have learned how to make the most of this data.
Placing data at the centre of business strategy is more important than ever. As the competition gets smarter, those that can find a way to utilize the data that is generated from the modern world will be the ones that succeed.
Why is data the new brand – big data applications
Big data and personalization
Data is the new personalization. The best brands know exactly what their customers want. They know when they want it. They know how they want it.
The thing is this isn’t guesswork. These brands are delivering personalization with information. Big data and personalized messaging form part of any successful brand strategy.
These brands have a method of generating data from their customers. They are effective in managing this data. And finally, they are efficient in using this data to understand customer success.
How does data inform personalization?
Big data personalization is being utilized by more and more brands. It involves using consumer-generated data to understand behaviour. The brands that are doing this best utilise multiple data sets in order to deliver engaging and personal experiences to customers.
Big data and product development
Developing products is hard. Data helps to generate product ideas by helping to illustrate how the customer actually use a brand’s product.
Brands that get product development right are using information to inform their process. They are using data in product rollouts and how new features are used to inform future product development.
These metrics can be more than just simple usage data. The explosion of different data types has provided much better insights into how customer use a product.
Powerful data mapping techniques are being used to map new datasets over existing data sources to provide even more insight to product designers. It’s not just about when and how much the customer interacts with the brand.
It’s now about looking at where and why customers use a product or interact with your brand. The top brands are using this data to inform their decision making. Extra datasets, such as location can give far more insights into how your product is being used.
Big data and business intelligence
Implementing a data strategy has had a wide-ranging positive impact outside of the marketing and product departments.
Data is helping brands to become predictive instead of reactive to consumer trends. The leading brands don’t just understand what their customers want, they can identify these earlier than ever before. All thanks to data.
In verticals such as retail, analytics data can be crucial. Becoming a digital-first brand involves using actionable data to gain a competitive advantage.
New data sets are helping brands to fill in the gaps. Especially in industries that have traditionally been slow to gather consumer data.
Business intelligence is now fuelled by data sets such as purchase data, location data and IoT data, amongst others.
The financial sector is using data sets such as location to predict the earnings and ultimately the financial success of brands. So why can’t brands use the same data to inform their strategy?
These data sets can be instrumental in helping brand management plan intelligently. Big data can help predict where to open new stores. They can help understand what consumers want and help find where these customers will be in the future. As well as this big data can be used across a brands marketing arsenal, from targeting to SEO tactics. You could even get yourself a UK SEO consultant to implement these. Even when using the big tools (such as BuzzSumo) there are many great free BuzzSumo alternatives to help with these tactics.
Using data as a competitive advantage should be a fundamental part of any brand’s strategy.
Brands and big data examples
Many brands come to mind when you think of big data. What do all of these brands have in common? They understand the value of different datasets. They use the data effectively
Netflix
Netflix has understood the benefits of data from the very beginning. A user’s viewing history is used to suggest new content in real time. It’s used to recommend new shows and it’s used to do this at the right moment.
Netflix uses data and analytics to understand what it’s users want to watch. This data is also used to predict trends and it’s used to commission new original content. This is an example of using data sets to become a predictive brand.
Hedge funds
The investment space is quick to realise the impact that data can have. This is an industry that lives and dies by its ability to predict the trends of huge amounts of people and the businesses that they interact with.
The sheer quantity of data is not all of the story. Getting the right data is more important. Hedge funds have seen some success by utilising data sets that aren’t commonly used. These are useful as they can provide insights that have previously been unattainable.
A great example of this is location data. Accurately mapping footfall and visits with location data can give a new insight into the offline world – a place where large-scale macro trends have been difficult to pin down.
Using these insights to predict financial trends can give financial companies the edge.
Conclusion – data is the new brand
As a brand you need to ask yourself – Is there a better kind of data that can help to inform your needs. You need to be sure that you can use data quickly and effectively.
Data is instrumental in the process of personalization, building great products and gaining business intelligence.
If you want to be a smart brand that can understand and predicts what the consumer wants you need data. If you want to deliver this in a personal and engaging way you need data. If this is what you aspire to then you will eventually arrive at big data. That’s why data is the new brand.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
