• by Skip Brand , June 19, 2014

The Big Data (Internet) of Things movement can help clarify the measurement to help everyone make money and build programmatic for brand building and buying. Measurement needs to keep up with the needs of the cross-platform world, and programmatic needs to advance with big data beyond bidding based on price, publisher-perceived quality and viewablity.  

CEOs, CMOs and product managers used to call in the researchers and data scientists only when the product or the marketing did not seem to be working. Now, the Chief Data Officer (CDO) is acting like a “data science” poet.

I recently began thinking of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for humans and the parallel for CMOs and Big Data. The foundation of the pyramid is physiological; we all need safety, love and belonging. This is followed by esteem, then self-actualization as the pinnacle. The hierarchy of needs for CMOs that measure today’s big data for programmatic is also needed.

Before we get to the hierarchy of needs, let’s discuss some recent findings. Nearly 80% of marketing executives expect digital, mobile and analytics to transform their brands' businesses over the next five years.  CMOs are facing growing pressure to deliver well-above market growth, manage a huge and growing amount of data, as well as adapt quickly to a rapidly changing technology landscape.  The pressure is building, but the simple big data science pyramid is coming to the rescue.

Big data science' “hierarchy of needs” for the CMO will help frame our future conversations. Our physiological needs are food, water, breathing, etc., and big data has central tenets as well. Jason Bowden makes a great case for the 4 Vs in big data: volume, variety, velocity and veracity, which I use as foundation for the hierarchy.  

The volume or scale of the data is foundational. Variety brings out quality. Velocity and the analysis of streaming or real-time data is most important. And veracity of the data constitutes the uncertainty.

Data science’s second foundation is the 4 Ps of marketing-- product, price, place and promotion -- which ensure that the corresponding data feels safe in the real-time world of programmatic. Data safety needs are customer data (CRM), product Q scores, customer segmentation data, pricing quantitative data (economics) and qualitative data (focus groups), basic product data, and use of launch, geography and sales. These all come together to create a basic feeling of safety in the CMO's organization.

The CMO in the big data world relies on social measures and measuring earned and owned media. Brand influence, likeability and loyal followers are expected to build brands for the next 50 years, not just short-term sales for quarter-to-quarter gains. Short- and long-term social media monitoring is paramount, and the data is priceless for brands on the road to self-actualization.  Today’s tweets, blogs, pins, and other social media content is tomorrow’s sense of brand love and devotion to carry a brand through bad products.

All humans need to feel respected. CMOs and brands need self-esteem and self-respect data. Brand recognition data like Cannes Lions awards, Interbrand Global brand scores, JD Powers rankings and respect from other brands are paramount to centering a company. Big data, which helps measure market positioning as well as market share, is what we are looking for here.  The CMO hierarchy of needs is not strictly separated.  Instead, they are closely related levels. You will find brand esteem data in everything if you know how to capture and measure it.

The CMO who embraces big data with the C-suite will awaken all the assets, resources and the people in the organization.  Big data and the CDO will help  brands keep an eye on the “why” of the company, not just the “how” or “what” talked so much about for short-term shareholder gain, using this data to self-actualize and build the brand for the next 50 years.