Will Big Data Require Big Changes in Marketing?

In this new age of "digital Darwinism," will "Big Data" require marketers to become "change agents" for their brands to remain relevant with customers? In a universe of rapidly shared public data, will "context" replace "content" as king, focusing analytics on customer experience over product? Those are just some of the issues raised by Brian Solis, principal analyst at consultancy Altimeter Group, in his keynote address at the Direct Marketing Association's National Center for Database Marketing (NCDM) conference and expo in December of 2012. Most marketers are already behind the curve: "There is a perception gap between what marketers know about their customers and reality,” stated Solis. With customers engaging with brands via multiple channels simultaneously and scattering "digital breadcrumbs" everywhere, marketers are challenged to figure out what data signals to follow and which to ignore as "noise." Since there's no stopping the big data evolution, marketers who want to survive and thrive should become "change agents" for informed, data-driven decisions across their organizations, suggests Solis. For a more in-depth discussion of the Solis remarks on how marketers can respond to the big data challenge, see the blog post by John Balla, SAS Senior Marketing Specialist in Customer Intelligence, at http://blogs.sas.com/content/customeranalytics/2012/12/05/seven-ways-for-marketers-to-respond-to-big-data-from-brian-solis/