I ran into my neighbor, Dan, the other morning on the train platform into NYC. Dan is the editor of a men’s magazine and he’s embarked on a 60-day “insanity” fitness regimen to give his readers insight into the new hyperactive, cross-training exercise craze. Jokingly, he asked if I could tell the difference and whether I could see his new muscles bulging out from underneath his raincoat; I told him to keep up the good work and that, sooner or later, he’d be respected on the train platform for his over-developed biceps.
Just as the cross-fit “big muscle” craze has overtaken fitness fanatics across America, the “big data” craze has taken hold in IT shops, marketing departments, and executive suites across the country and around the world. Both are examples of deep, underlying trends: fitness has been cresting for years, driven by aging baby-boomers who refuse to give up; the emphasis on data and analytics has likewise been building for years, with an almost “perfect storm” developing recently as processing power, data storage, and analytic software come together to give more and more companies the power to discover insights that would have been impossible just a few years ago.
So, where is this “big data” wave taking us? Well, for one, the Peppers and Rogers “1-to-1 marketing” ideal is getting tantalizingly close to realization. With the increasing capture of more and more of a customer’s “data exhaust” being captured and analyzed, companies will be able to offer ever-more-targeted, relevant products and services to their customers, and talk about them in more relevant and compelling ways. Communications will become less invasive and more welcome as they deliver more value to the recipient – welcome news both to consumers and to the companies that serve them.
Other “big data” trends include the use of more of the social data that are available from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other platforms. Some companies are also “crowdsourcing” data (think Jigsaw, acquired by SalesForce, which tapped into customers’ own contact lists to create a comprehensive database of company information) and even leveraging social influencers to promote their products and services (think Crowdtap).
Like getting big muscles, learning how to use big data requires practice and constant attention – it needs to become an ingrained habit, and “second nature” for companies that truly want to leverage it to transform their businesses.
