As rising inflation rates squeeze consumer and brand spending, FlexMR Chief Marketing Officer Chris Martin examines how inflation affects more than just financial assets. In the opinion piece, The Hidden Costs of Data Inflation, Chris outlines how pressures on data ecosystems to grow has diluted their impact and how modern marketers are rising to the challenge.
It's a problem that many in the brand, market and insight space are familiar with. It’s also central to what we do at FlexMR. How do we know we’re making the right decisions? From brand positioning to individual advert testing, media mixes to pricing. The 21st century marketing machine is massive. Customer and consumer journeys are no longer straightforward, linear experiences. They are complex, meandering paths that engage hundreds of touchpoints.
The Role of Man and Machine
And at the center of it all are people. People who make decisions, big and small, that cumulatively affect the trajectory of travel for any business. But as the volume of touchpoints and data sources continue to grow – so too does the volume of data we must parse.
Every individual answer, plot on a graph, table or index becomes less valuable. Because there’s simply more of it. More to agree. More to disagree. An increasingly perfect lens that requires ever-more pixels to build an accurate picture.
To that end, many teams are placing a greater reliance on machine learning and AI algorithms. While there may not be agreement on what role exactly these tools should play, the basic premise is fairly universal. Automated tools sift through vast volumes of (often interconnected) data to surface the patterns, anomalies and insights that are most valuable to human interpreters.
Of course, the risk with such methods is that AI and machine learning algorithms become an invisible hand that guide critical business decisions in a way that is more opaque than humans can understand. That’s why its vital, in the exponential age, to have both a robust data strategy and a solid grasp of fundamental marketing concepts.
Navigating Complexity with Insight
Chris concludes the piece with a brief introduction to bridging the big data gap with small data – qualitative insight that helps to create customer empathy. He highlights that interviews, ethnographies and focus groups are the social science methodologies that have, for generations, helped marketers understand the thoughts and feelings that underpin consumer actions.
Even today, data inflation doesn’t pose a threat to them. Because, in the competitive arms race for knowledge, they will act as the gold-standard insurance against data inflation – complementing micro measurements with macro, human context.
Read the full Prolific North opinion piece online here.
About Prolific North
Prolific North is an independent publisher based in Manchester. Launched in January 2013, it is now established as the leading news, jobs and events hub for the media, digital, marketing, tech and creative sectors in the North. Through a multi-platform strategy that encompasses features, editorial and events, Prolific North aims to promote and elevate the voices of fast-growing agencies across the region.
