Did you know an average person spends more time on their phone and laptops than sleeping?!
There’s no denying that we love being connected – whether that’s our smartphone, tablet or any other personal device. Yet, there is also an underlying sense that technology has permeated so far into our personal life that the more it knows about us, the way we shop and live our lives, the more ‘creeped out’ we seem to get! So is there a secret formula to knowing just enough about your customer and their personal habits, likes and dislikes? Is it possible to take the sting out of analytics and intelligence by combining machine and man or woman to create something truly powerful and actionable? We think there is – enter cognitive capabilities and Watson.
It’s all about the data
We often talk a great deal about how digital insights and the intelligence we gain from this has an impact on our lives. But businesses often get bogged down in the data. As an example of the extent of this problem, in 2013, it was estimated that 90% of the world’s data had been generated by the two preceding years. The difficulty is, there has also been a huge shift in not only the volume but the type of data that organisations have available to them. From small amounts of data that are mostly structured, to an overwhelming amount of mostly unstructured data.
Businesses use structured data every day through relational databases and spreadsheets, where patterns can easily be identified. However, unstructured data, which comes in the form of emails, social media, blogs, documents, images and video, is often even more meaningful and therefore represents a challenge as well as a significant source of opportunity for brands.
Yet, using the right technology combined with human intelligence, businesses can segment the data and develop targeted cohorts that enable brands to truly differentiate themselves from their competitors and engage on a personal level. Consider IBM Watson for a moment. If we imagine that Watson is the new member of your marketing team, a researcher like no other. At first, the onboarding phase can take some time before they’re fully integrated because you have to teach him/her everything from scratch. But once up and running and he/she learns the rules, the possibilities reach a new dimension. Watson is able to digest huge amounts of complex structured and unstructured information and contextualise it to serve up different options for you the marketer to act upon.
This is where cognitive technology comes in. Having the capabilities as a business to harness structured and unstructured data by marrying technology and human insight. Businesses are then able to derive insights, evaluate all possible decisions using evidential support and reach a personalised conclusion with a certain level of confidence. In order for businesses to survive, they need to employ clever technology that is able to understand the data available to them, reason and learn intuitively on a continual basis.
For example, Red Bull recently used IBM Watson personality insights to analyse social posts and video interviews from athletes to provide recommendations about style, attitude, and form that improved connecting fans with the brand. This unprecedented level of intelligence, from phonographic to demographic insights, takes marketing to the next level, making it human to human, as opposed to a machine generating insight and not really fully understanding its meaning or application in the right context and social situation.
Staying ahead of the competition
Marketers across all industries are facing a growing need to observe, interpret, and evaluate ideas within their own specific use cases. Every day, organisations leverage data to maintain pace with the rising expectations of their consumers and stakeholders. In offering up data through social interactions and countless other channels, customers now have a base expectation of a brand to understand their behaviors and needs beyond what can be achieved with solely structured information. It’s important that organisations look to do so with the latest technologies that have the capability to support the growing demands of their business and tap into the potential of unstructured data. By using cognitive computing, companies can discern meaningful trends in their data, analyse more data than ever before at an extremely fast pace and differentiate themselves in the market. By developing a contextual view of customers in a particular moment, brands are building a platform to be able to engage and foster loyalty beyond what was previously possible.
When stitched together and analysed appropriately, a deluge of data suddenly becomes actionable knowledge and insight that marketers can act upon to maintain a personal connection with their customers. Ignoring this and the technology available to give you the best possible outcome with customers, could cost you your competitive advantage.
By Lisa Gilbert, chief marketing officer UK and Ireland at IBM
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