The Limits of Big Data in Marketing

The Limits of Big Data in Marketing

This article talks about the limits of big data in the field of marketing.  Traditionally, marketing is considered an area were human insight was key, almost an art form.  Recently, however, computers and algorithms have been used more and more in the field of marketing.   The algorithms are used to find relationships between data points and are used to predict areas of opportunity.  Also, market strategies are now created and tested in a simulated environment, and then only the most successful strategies from the simulations are considered for real world application.  Although these improvements are happening continually, it is hard for any one firm to gain a competitive advantage.  This is due to the speed at which the other firms are able to catch up, which is extremely rapid.  Therefore any advantage is short lived.  The author of this article claims that the real advantage does not lie in the technical area of marketing, but in the creative side.  All firms have computers and algorithms, but finding people with truly original ideas is much harder to find.  Computer can do many things and find patterns in oceans of data, but the author maintains that even though computers are capable of so much there are some things they will never be capable of doing.  Computers will never be able to understand our intent or our emotions, and this is where the advantage of truly creative people lies, with their ability to relate to people. 

Source:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/03/06/the-limits-of-big-data-marketing/