3 minute read
Big Data is an opportunity that cannot be missed and an opportunity that has to be used wisely; otherwise, you’ll be left behind the boat.
What is Big Data and
how to manage it?
Big Data is a powerful statistical tool. As business today is fully customer-oriented, brands are enrooted in daily life, and customer experience, hopes and wishes, lay deep in this huge amount of “ones” and “zeros”. With its help, visible and invisible consumer trends can be determined and used for business development. In other words, Big Data offers an opportunity to get inside customers’ mind and head. But as brains are manipulating the big volume of different information, changing, developing, improving, bringing out new pieces of knowledge, Big Data is storing it. And we have access to it.
Just a part of decision-
making process
Where there is a great[nbsp]power, there are great[nbsp]risks. Consequences of misreading customer behavior can be disastrous. Big data is raw untouched numbers generated independently. Indeed, data does not speak by itself – it has a human voice. The challenge is for an IT specialist to extract, transform, load part of big data set and for managers to determine the trends, insights and make right decisions based on analyses.
Cooking truly
raw data
There are a lot of discussions on whether[nbsp]Big Data can replace traditional market research, where particular questions are asked to a previously segmented audience. Alternatively, Big Data is to answer the questions that have not yet been asked, as it is a fluid and dynamic flow of information generated independently. Since most of the electronic devices are shared and might be used by the whole household, not only by one particular person, it is impossible to determine the target audience in Big Data. Therefore, it is appropriate to say that Big Data measures devices, not people. Nevertheless, unstructured data comes at a low cost, fast and in[nbsp]great[nbsp]volumes, which is described by Big Data’s 3Vs: Volume, Velocity and Variety. In order to get solid base with the most accurate data, the mixed type of research has to be implemented. As expressed by McKinsey[&]Company service description, to develop deep customer understanding they employ a range of quantitative and qualitative marketing research approaches plus big data techniques that are both innovative and pragmatic.
Notwithstanding the need to analyze Big Data, it can be used by itself. Take the case of online services working closely with social networks and using Big Data – they already show magnificent results. Namely, Amazon or eBay advertisements are already personalized and based on users previous searches. Google determines target group for ad campaigns based on users searches and personal information given when registering an account. And this is just a few examples.
Big Data is not
a new thing
Moreover, Big Data has been existing for a while and has been causing lots of discussions even longer. It has arrived in every sphere of business and everyday life. It’s size, form and productivity speed are revolutionary. To put it into a perspective, in 2015 humanity produces more data in 2 days than throughout the all-time until 2008. The variety of data shapes has expanded: texts, posts, blogs, images, videos, audios, geo-locations, – basically, every online action contributes to Big Data.
