How Big Data can impact marketing spends Posted on : Feb 13 - 2018

The 1990s saw the emergence of Big Data, in reference to sets of data that were so massive that it was impossible for traditional data analysis software to analyse them. As time passed and technology improved, increased computing power meant that analysing these data sets became easier with time, and today, the information provided by such analytics is used in a variety of fields. A recent member of this new revolution is the field of marketing.

Some of the biggest use cases of big data within businesses are core marketing processes, including customer analytics, operational analytics, fraud and compliance, new product & service innovation, and enterprise data warehouse optimization. It’s safe to say that big data and marketing are married to one another through a deep bond of smarter insights informing improved efficiency and performance. So what are the various areas where data analytics is helping marketing? Let’s start with pricing.

It’s all about the money

Pricing fluctuations depend on global factors that may be better understood by big data. Data from McKinsey paints a clear picture of the relationship between pricing and data. More than 70 percent of a company’s revenue comes from its offerings, but about 30 percent comes from variable pricing insights and fluctuations. A 1 percent price increase can translate into an 8.7 percent increase in operating profits. Using data analytics to predict the right moments to raise prices can thus translate into consistently better performance across the board.

What’s even more interesting is that Forrester Research found that one of the biggest impact areas of big data was in customer relationship management, which would be enhanced significantly if it was employed at a corporate level. When these processes are leveraged correctly and produces actionable insights instead of just reaffirming existing beliefs, it can be an agent of truly visionary decision-making processes.

In a related survey, Forrester also found out that about 40 percent of consumer marketing associates were using data analytics to improve their response times to evolving market trends and 35 percent of them were using the technology to mine insights from the field. View More