4 Applications of Big Data in Marketing

What makes your favorite brand worth it? Or what makes you trust one company’s products over another’s? How do you have recognition for a particular product made by a particular company like no other? Well, this is all a product of marketing. 

Marketing is not just the act of buying and selling and seeing advertisements, it's much more than that. It is a socio-economic process that is nowadays being digitized and in this process, it is using advanced and big data analytics to maximize its scope. 

 

Data is something that is present literally everywhere and it also opens a lot of avenues for the businesses seeking to grow and make better decisions by understanding prevalent patterns.

 

 

Understanding Big Data

 

In order to understand Big Data, let's have a look at what ‘data’ is. Data refers to the stored information and recorded operations which were performed by the computer in various forms. Big data can be understood as the same data being present in huge amounts and numbers. This consists of information provided and both humans and the devices. 

 

Big data is the collection of data that is also growing exponentially with time. Big data is so large and complex in its size and storage that it is unable to be deciphered and understood efficiently by the traditional data management tools. 

 

Big data analytics can be used to reveal pre-existing ignored patterns by using analytical understanding and predetermined conclusions are sought after to be able to fetch the desired results and understand and decode the data in terms of existing issues. 

 

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Collection of Big Data

 

Big Data serves as an essential tool in sales and marketing. Knowing the customer and keeping track record of the customer’s choices and preferences can be of great use to businesses to make more efficient decisions with regard to the goal. There can be various ways using which the companies can collect big data about the customer to impart in their marketing. The data like age, location, preferences, purchase history,  financial conditions, positions of the competitors, etc can play a huge role in making informed decisions for the future to attract more customers.

The companies collect big data from the customers in the following ways:
 

• By Asking

 

Generally, this is related to the customer's name, contact information, and location. These details are the most inevitable ones as they get asked while making an online purchase on a website. This culminates into the geographical and contact details of the customers (in the case the company wishes to contact the customer for future promotions).  

 

 The other way to ask for data is in the form of a survey which comprises more direct and clear questions which are subjective in nature and can help in profiling the customer and understand their choices and preferences. 

 

• Loyalty Programs

 

This enables the customers to collect points with every purchase and based on the specific criteria they can be rewarded. This helps the customer to keep its profile on the portal which consists of the preferences and habits, this kind of data is used by the companies. For eg, in retargeting. 

 

• Data Companies

 

Companies nowadays purchase the data of the customers from other third-party companies. Such companies have their specific sources for the data collection of both structured and unstructured data for the sole purpose of selling it to other companies and making a profit.  The companies can purchase this data to start operating on it and use it for various purposes. 

 

• Social Media Activities

 

There are certain kinds of social media applications that trace the data and activities of the profiles of the people involved. In fact, social media is one of the leading platforms for retargeting. 

 

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Apart from this, there are other sources and techniques of data collection like email tracking, cookies, and satellite imagery which are self-explanatory and function, in the same way, to provide the companies with the customer data. 

Also, the companies can use their own financial and operational data alongside detailed market analysis collected over time from various sources to track performance, pricing, sales and costs, margins, logistics to work more efficiently and derive more useful conclusions from the big data. 

 

 

Uses of Big Data in Marketing

 

This is a well-known fact of marketing and profit-making that the more you know your customer the more you can abide by what is liked by them and can set price, content, and user interface accordingly.  Big Data can be understood by any data expert and can provide really insightful conclusions hence derived which can be implemented in the marketing strategies and processes to get the maximum output from them. 

 

1. Building Better Customer Relationships 

 

Knowing the customer and their preferences can enable the marketing team to understand the decision-making of the customer before choosing any particular brand. This can enable the marketing team to make the customer journey suitable and smooth. 

 

For example,  If the data states that there is any e-commerce platform the consumers are inclined towards due to their membership rewards and loyalty program. The marketing team can focus on building strategies to promote the benefits of their loyalty program to attract such customers. 

 

Also having the data about the customers and their preferences can enable the online stores to show them the right items at the right time in the form of their recommended items to promote the other products as well and making the customer journey more convenient throughout their portal. 

 

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Knowing the customers and the concepts like KYC not just maintains the authenticity of the user but also helps the businesses in grouping the users to cater to them the right content while marketing at the right platform. Meaning if the users are of a certain age group that uses social media the company can go ahead with promoting themselves online via pages and advertisements.

 

 

2. Appropriate Brand Positioning 

 

Big Data eases the brand or product positioning by just being the source of various categorizations and groupings. Having data about the growth and customer base of the brand can help the businesses inadequately positioning their brand in the market among the right customers. 

 

This is the most widely established marketing strategy which is akin to differentiation. Having the idea about why your brand is popular amongst which consumer base can help in determining the niche as well as in making a strategy that represents the brand and can grab the attention of other customers as well. 

 

Brand positioning can be done based on various pointers like price, quality, targeted audience, etc with the purpose of making the brand gain momentum amongst a particular group. This kind of marketing strategy not just works in improving sales but also creates competition in the market. 

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Uses of Big Data in Marketing

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3. Optimizing Prices 

 

Big Data can enable the companies to have the details about the price of the competitors and inflation rates over the years, also this can help the companies understand the purchasing power of the users of the brand so that they can subtly stick to that without incurring any losses. 

 

Price regulation is not something really controlled by the marketing team but yet they can provide suggestive measures to justify the prices kept by the company for their products. 

 

Also, the data of the changed prices can help the company informing further strategies to clear the stocks of the old products during the sales or make the adequate price decision of the new planned launched products in the market. 

 

 

4. Designing Campaigns and Advertisements 

 

Big Data is also collected from social media, considering that the marketing team can have a look at what is being in trend so that they can adapt the same for their marketing strategy. 

 

Something with which the audience can relate and is of a good cause ends up getting the attention of the brand. For example, the ‘Stop The Beauty Test’ campaign by Dove is one such campaign asking the women to share their stories with them. Campaigns, mainly social media campaigns or digital marketing tricks, are the most widely reaching marketing tactic for the companies nowadays as it focuses on the idea primarily and it is designed in a way that everyone can participate from their various accounts. 

 

Here the audience engagement is the focal point of the marketing teams. Also, big data provides insights into the channels which are able to deliver the best results. This can allow the company to invest in their channels accordingly with the related advertisements. 

 

Advertising the products is also a stage of marketing, in fact, most of the marketing is done by advertising the products on various channels, so if a brand takes up a practical approach about the data it has of results by various channels they can completely modify their marketing strategies. 

 

Recommended Blog:  IoT in Advertising 

 

 

Conclusion

 

This is a clear enough fact that the more data a brand acquires the more avenues open for them to gain momentum in the market, to improve their services, to get better engagement from the customers, and also promote their brands and reach the right customers. 

 

Strategy improvisation, looking for better alternatives and adequate channels for marketing is only possible with the basis of a strong conclusion provided by the big data. As the data gets interpreted notably helps in making better and informed decisions in a lot of industries and steps, big data having a remarkable application in marketing, is just yet another field.