Why Big Data Should be Used Ethically – Transcript
Big Data is a real hot topic in marketing and a lot of companies are now using data to predict our behaviour.
Companies love it because they can find out a lot more about customers. They can use it to predict sales, they can use it to predict behaviour. Okay,
There are loads of advantages, but customer really, really hate it.
Sometimes when you’re being offered a discount before you walk into a store, I mean, that’s amazing. Everybody wants a discount, right?
But many customers don’t like the fact that somebody or a company can predict their behaviour. If you think about it, this goes back to our human instincts because let’s say we’re in a war, if the enemy can predict your behaviour, you are screwed. You’re done for.
If you think about it, this goes back to our human instincts. Let’s say you’re in a war, if the enemy can predict your behaviour, you are screwed. You’re done for.
When you’re using data to predict customers behaviour, you need to bear in mind our human primal instinct is to react badly. They do not want a company to know exactly where they are, what they’re doing, They absolutely hate it. As marketers, we need to bear that in mind and we need to really consider what people really want us to know.
The other side of it is that when people start to think that you can predict their behaviour, they instantly do random things. They instantly go into a mindset of ‘I’m going to be unpredictable now’.
Conclusion
Big data can be really useful for marketers. But you need to make sure that you don’t get to the point of knowing someone too well or it will cause them to be unpredictable and then you’ve lost them anyway.