Commentary

Data Does NOT Equal People

by Gord Hotchkiss , Featured Contributor, July 23, 2019

We marketers love data. We treat it like a holy grail: a thing to be worshipped. But we’re praying at the wrong altar. Or, at the very least, we’re praying at a misleading altar.

Data is the digital residue of behavior. It is the contrails of customer intent -- a …

data, data mining, research

2 comments about "Data Does NOT Equal People".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, July 23, 2019 at 9:57 a.m.
All very true, Gord. The key is "why" and this requires human judgement born of experience as well as what can be gleaned from "the data".

Sadly, many in advertising---and elsewhere---don't seem to draw the distinction between "data" and "interpretation". What they want is a simplistic formula that is widely accepted and doesn't require much thought. For example, about 25 years ago there was a major thrust in the TV commercial testing field to find a single, easy to measure metric as a way to evaluate the effectiveness of each commercial. Instead of the sometimes tedious process of establishing what was recalled, whether it was motiaving, etc. we would rely simply on "liking"---whether the viewer "liked" the commercial. Now, it must be said that "liking" did correlate well with other more specific metrics---verified recall, brand ID, sales motivation, etc. ---so there was some merit to the idea. However, many wanted to forget about the other indicators and rely only on "liking". Which would have been a huge mistake as "liking" didn't tell you why the ad was liked---hence effective---and offered little guidance regarding how to create future ads.

We see much the same thing today in the constant chant---"data, data, data"----with no discussion of what data is being referred to or how to use it in a meaningful manner. Indeed, some are suggesting that tomorrow's CMOs must learn how to manipulate and process "data" or they will be left behind. Which is absurd. What CMO's need is people who report to them who understand "data" from a practical marketing persepctive---not a theoretical one---and can draw conclusions from the data which support the development of sensible strategies.
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