What are the Strengths and Weaknesses of Big Data Implementations For Marketers?
Big data applications
The modern market challenges require operational business prosperity in the information processing industry through the figuration of the expertise of marketers in areas such as the Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, and Social Media Analysis. The strengths and advantages of applying big data analytic tools and techniques into the operational system of the enterprise are undeniable. There is a claim that advanced technologies contribute to more cheap production costs and more fast informational provision.
Strengths of big data implementations for marketers
Regarding the discussions of big data strengths in marketing terms, big data is often associated with tracking the customer’s consumer habits, his shopping choices, creating a profile with the customer’s characteristics using loyalty programs, and so on. Thus, big data can help the marketer (whose professional skills are concentrated in the practical field of market research) to collect more accurate customer information and develop more profitable strategies from the information provided by big data technologies.
In fact, big data implementations in marketing have more broad opportunities and use cases. T. Choi, S. Wallace, Y. Wang classify the strengths and weaknesses around the areas of statistics, machine learning, data mining, and optimization. Big data also suggests opportunities for software self-learning, real-time optimization, unnecessary data reduction, clustering techniques, and others. The researchers also define the “Other” areas of big data integrative approaches in the operational management system in the enterprise, such as social network analysis, clustering algorithm analysis, and visualization analysis. The opportunities of these kinds of informational strategies are to be further explored since each area is discussed to have its specific strengths and weaknesses.
Weaknesses of big data implementations for marketers
One of the most significant challenges in operating with big data for marketers is the high value of training, skills, and professional knowledge on the topic. Currently, the modern market of IT tools and solutions is not suitable for specialists without an appropriate education level. To make big data an effective tool for operational management and increasing business revenue, marketers need to constantly improve their knowledge and skills in the field of IT, analytics, and information computing. In addition, it becomes critical for marketers to keep track of the latest innovations in the programs they use, such as new cloud updates (which may offer more highly efficient and secure versions of the software).
As a consequence of the aforementioned fact of intelligent accessibility of the sphere of big data, it should be noted that the implementation of a program for operating with large flows of information becomes a resource-intensive process for business. Despite the significant number of opportunities that this area offers, organizations need large amounts of primary resources to provide such technologies, which is also not an affordable option for everyone. This applies to both the technical security of the organization and the conduct of educational training to train personnel to operate with big data.
Conclusion and perspectives
Overall, the strengths of the big data techniques for marketers are mainly in the fact that skillful use of advanced analytics technologies helps a specialist to more easily develop strategies for promoting a product or service on the market. The reverse side of the technology is that the successful implementation of these tools requires huge costs from both the organization as a whole and the marketers themselves. Thus, the current research field is currently exploring how to utilize better big data tools for different kinds of applications and organizational demands.