So what’s up in marketing strategy these days? Two words: BIG DATA. I’m okay around big data but am much more facile around LITTLE DATA. I use data often in planning: sales, margins, target penetration, adds, moves and deletes but I loves me some little data. Info that resides between consumers’ ears. What they say they like. What they don’t say they like. What they dislike and why. And, of course, the culture into which products and services fits. This is the softer side of planning.
My two previous posts were about “proof.” One might think that proof, evidence and tangibles are not the softer side. Sometimes they’re not. But honestly, new unexpected proofs can be found while delving into the softer side. Contrary, market-busting proofs.
There was a cultural moment 15 years ago when the Mets Mike Piazza stepped out of the dugout with blond hair — giving permission to 100 million American men to color their hair — effectively doubling the size of the hair color market. That was a softer side or little data proof. Something that could have made a big data woosh had it overcame cultural stasis. It did not happen and here the hair color market sits.
Don’t overlook the itty bitty data club. As Yogi might have said, it’s big.
Peace.