Big Data Doesn’t Know A Thing, But It Sure Can Ask the Right Questions

When I was 12, I remember telling my mother that if a human being could know all the events that factor into the moment just before an automobile accident, it would be possible to avoid the accident. Little did I know that, a) I was talking about “big data;” b) I was wrong.

Fortunately, a couple of guys who actually know what they’re talking about have written the book that explains it all: Predicting the Future With ‘Big Data’.

Kenneth Cukier is data editor for The Economist and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger is Professor of internet governance and regulation at Oxford University. The co-authors appeared on the Kojo Nnamdi show March 7.

If I understand what Cukier and Mayer-Schönberger are saying, big data leads us not to more facts, but to more data, within which will be more questions and, therefore, greater opportunities for insights. And yet, the whys of “the universe” will remain a mystery.

More Data Is Just More Data
The paradox, apparently, is this: More data negates — or at least counter-balances — the need for perfect data. Mayer-Schönberger puts it this way: “… as we have more data, we can also be accepting some inexactitude in how we collect the data and how perfectly curated the data is because we just have so much of it … [And, any move away from] an elusive quest to find causality, targets something much more pragmatic and much simpler called correlations. It means that we are not looking for the why. We are looking for the what and that’s good enough.”

The Power of the Spread Is the Greatest Power Yet
Mayer-Schönberger thinks both the invention of the printing press and the invention of the Internet will be dwarfed by another major leap forward: not the mere spreading of information, but the spreading of the power of information. [Crowd-sourcing, anyone? Or, maybe, targeted sharing?]

Say what? Cukier explains. “You can imagine that [big data is] going to actually change the way that businesses run. They’ll find their most precious asset might not be what they’re actually building [or selling or offering], but the data that goes into it — because they can learn from [that data] and cross-apply it to other things.”

Got data?
You’re in the cat bird’s seat. And you know it. As a marketer, you know better than to despair at data results. You just test again … and again. You just get more data.

Cukier gives us a good example: “Imagine an algebra teacher who would find out that 60 percent of her students got the same question wrong with the exact same answer. She would, therefore, learn that, in fact, maybe she taught the algebra wrong, that maybe she wasn’t clear enough.” Insight. New testing. More data.

Data Is Fake
Should we worry about the issue of big data and our privacy? Sure, because we always need to be vigilant as a society not to misuse or abuse big data. But keep calm.

Cuckier explains. “Data is only a simulacrum of reality. It is not the real thing, firstly. Also, we’ll never have all the data. That’s not actually possible … So this sort of hypothetical thought experiment of what will happen when we know everything about everyone, that day is just not going to happen. So on a practical level, to get wound up in knots about this doesn’t seem useful..”

If only I’d known then what I know now …

scrubbed by MarketingBrillo

Copywriting, sure. Graphic design... Oh My Wowser!

An article in Print magazine's enewsletter [April 10, 2013] reminded me how much we owe graphic designers [artists!] and how little homage we pay them.

Just look at these two graphics.

The first was created for Emerge magazine in 1994 to illustrate an article entitled "The First Amendment: Friend and Sometimes Foe."

The second graced the cover of an LGBT Marriage and Family Resources brochure in 2004.

I keep staring.


Print's article is promoting Dejan Krsic's book Mirko Ilić: Fist to Face. Krisic says, "You'll love this book if you:
1) love Time Magazine's art direction;
2) want to read an amazing story of perseverance and greatness;
3) have respect for the history of one of the greatest designers of the past generation.

I'd add one more reason. You'll love this book if these graphics:

4) make your mouth water, make you want to cry, or just make you want to stare.

Krsic describes llić as "a visionary and a leading voice of visual culture across disciplines and continents." That sentence made me think (again) of the brilliance and power graphic designers have brought to the marketing/advertising/social media/pop culture world that surrounds us.

On Mad Men, it's all about the copywriters and the wordsmiths. The artists are long-haired, bearded, pot smokin' freaks (Season 6). Not fair. The best ones -- like Ilić -- are serious souls who have helped change our world.

So, hug your graphic designer today. It's time.

Wowser!

Dear Fundraiser:

Your name could be Obama or Romney or Something Else. I have the same question for you:

Why are you all over me? Why do you send me a dozen appeals for money every day? Sure, you personally are not sending all of them. Your friends (the XNC, the XXCC, the RedWhiteorBlue Committee, and every political party candidate running for reelection in the fifty states) also writes me. And you all want the same thing: money. But why? 

See, I'm irritated because ...

• My job was to help you get elected. I did as much as I could. Now it's your job to carry out what  you promised you'd do after the election. It doesn't matter if you won or lost. I paid you anyway and you promised. So get on with it.

• Don't keep marketing to me -- at least not until the dust settles. If you want to talk to me, fine. If you want me to sign a petition, I'll do it. If you'd like my opinion, maybe. But do stop selling me all the time. Please.

• I keep wondering: Can you discuss issues without asking me for money? Can you tell me, in clear terms, what's up.. without saying the whole country is absolutely screwed without my cash? Can you treat me like somebody with a brain larger than a pocketbook?

• Would you thank me, or at least acknowledge that I tried to help get you elected -- and, no, it doesn't count if you ask me for dinero in the same email.

• Sure you know my name, and my email address, and even my home address. But do you know me ... and do you care? (I know, that's silly. But you've asked a lot from me in the past year and I'm feeling petulant.)

• Come to think of it, do you ever visit my Twitter page or my Facebook page or my website? Maybe you'd learn something about me (and your other constituents) that you didn't know. It's called research.

• Seems like you've got enough technology to email me a dozen times a day from every IP address on the planet, but you can't figure out how to engage in a social media exchange with me. For example: You want to know what I think? Ask me (you never have, you know ...)

• Oh wait .. you do know something about social media after all. You know how to ask me to contact all my friends on Facebook. Sorry, I don't use my friends that way ... but I guess you wouldn't understand that.

Like I said, I'm irritated.

Print Marketing Less Travelled

Oddly enough, with the digital tsunami drowning us, print has become more personal than many of us imagined.

That thought prompted me to consider options for less-often-seen print marketing. Here are a few possibilities.

1. Personalized print products used post-purchase to solidify relationships. We've got the usual, of course -- gifts, coupons, invitations, clothing items, etc. -- but how about "activity projects" like a personalized puzzle for the kids or flat cardboard that can be folded to make a box?

2. Transpromotional customer relationship building -- for example, mailing a personalized pen with a refund check or a useful informational brochure with the bill from the doctor's office (e.g. 10 Healthy Foods) or auto service center (The Truth About Oil Changes).

3. "Handwritten" notes on embossed stationary with"person-ality." Isn't this the reasoning behind the very effective holiday notes and cards given away in fundraising appeals-- that we can't throw them away? Could this be expanded to notes that reach out, for example: "We're so glad you dined with us on August 31. It was a pleasure to have you."

4. Less common printed products with history (for example maps, comic books, small books). Covenant House does this very effectively with its small books/stories sent to select patrons. What "must-keep" print product can we offer to strengthen the bond with customers?

5. "Real" -- and increasingly rare -- photographs. When personalized to an individual, a locality, a pet, a car, or a hobby, who can throw away a "real" photograph? (Note: the line here can easily cross from cute to creepy, so "generic-personal" would be the right balance, of course.)

6. Local and special interest magazines. We see these distributed everywhere. Many are free; all are geared to the local or specialty market. Often these magazines are supported by advertising, not subscription. Successfully used by many nonprofit organizations, print periodicals remain a favorite with senior execs.

7. 3D-printed products. Personalized printing has been around for a long time (premiums? t-shirts?), but imagine the "things" we will soon be able to print and sell with 3D printing. It's a brain boggle, from gadgets to jewelry and clothing ... to household items and art ... to things we never thought of (yet). Catch your idea here from this array featured on 3D Printing Examples on Pinterest.

8. Print that thrives with the unplug movement. Print is precious.

Buckle Up: The Landing Pad Is Just Ahead

I expect that most of the growth of the PC industry over the next several years will be in this thin, high-end 11"-14" 3-4lb touchscreen/convertible Ultrabook category.

Source:  Jason Perlow, ZDNet

Jason thinks ultrabook, I think ultrapad and we think the same thing. I'm not a techie. I'm a writer/ marketer and here's how I work.

When  I'm really cranking, I use my MacBook with a full keyboard, a Kensington Track Ball (some things you never give up), and a huge monitor. Here, I can do everything, light and heavy: Write in Word or text files; access archival Word and Creative Suite docs and PDFs; use every conceivable software program; access my 12 social media accounts; review archival email going back six years (even farther back on my big external hard drive); copy and paste to multiple places via storify; post to my two Pinterest accounts; do my banking and taxes; manage my two Scoop-it accounts and five websites, and do live chat via FaceTime (my new favorite) or Skype. 

Yes, it's a lot and, so far no tablet can handle it, including the iPad, which I love madly for its portability.

As for cell phone, I have a cheap Android and no-contract Cricket. Why? Because my particular work life does not demand doing business from the road much. Except for an occasional text or quick message when I venture out, I take my iPad.

And yet and yet …

Each day I inch close to being able to work exclusively on this tablet of mine. It seems that today -- unless you're a  techie with mad programming needs or a road warrior with mad phone needs -- an iPad size device that can convert to a real computer on demand -- full keyboard and monitor -- is the near-term optimal tool for many white collar workers.

There's more. I use the iPad for entertainment, too, streaming Twitter, researching, and reading magazines and books while I am watching television.

Predictably -- for me anyway -- the future suggests more cloud-based software and reliable online storage options -- all delivered on the best portable but adaptable pad device with fierce battery life plus neat-invisible design that will make my pad sit up and stay where I put it.

However this plays out in its specifics, one thing is clear to me: I never thought I'd say it, but I'm loving this small computer more every day.

Pad on …

GEICO: How Can They Be SO Good?

Common wisdom has it that personalization is everything in direct mail. GEICO -- which consistently produces some of the best TV commercials in history -- has once again turned the direct mail pundits on their ears.

Yesterday, GEICO hit me with a tiny 5x5.5-inch self-mailer with no personalization whatsoever. This mailer didn't even have an address. In fact, it was so self-contained that, in clearing out the mail, I kept thinking I'd thrown the rest of it away.

How'd they do that?

I'm betting this mailer went out through USPS' "every door direct mail" program. Sometimes derided and often feared by direct mailers, this "every door" effort proved that, in the right hands, simple can still work.

When opened to its full 5.5x9-inch glory, this 2-color (blue and black), lightweight (50# offset?) flyer popped up a wee (2x3.5-inch)  perforated "quote card," blown into the flap. On one side, the terse copy suggested that I could save up to $500 in 15 minutes by switching to GEICO; on the other, I found website and phone info.

The pièce de résistance for direct mail lovers? The bottom of the doodad made my response easy by featuring a QR code that, upon scan, promised me a no-obligation rate quote.

I'm already a GEICO customer, so clearly this piece didn't target me. So what? I loved the simplicity and ingenuity of this "quick quote card," which seemed very GEICO-esque in its light, airy, simple, and, somehow, quirky demeanor.

In short, the skill the marketers demonstrated proved GEICO not only does great TV, they know their direct mail.

--scrubbed by MarketingBrillo

What Customer Service "Chatter" SHOULD Be Doing For Your Organization

A report from Salesforce projects that a new level of business intelligence will come from online support communities operating in the cloud. So-called "chatter communities" are touted as both a multiplier for current support efforts, as well as a prospective revenue generator for sales and marketing.

Online discussion communities are nothing new, of course. These meeting places for customers with problems have traditionally been set up by vendors or by customers themselves looking to one another for help. In today's data-laden world, however, vendors should be using online discussions in a variety of other organization functions. For example, "chatter communities" supply market research, identify engaged customers, and open the door to volunteer testing and problem-solving.

Feared by some organizations as a place where grumpy customers will sign on to gripe, online discussion boards actually help control bad sentiments by furnishing a place to let off -- and respond to -- steam. Importantly, open discussions also allow companies to integrate customer commentary with other communication and support mechanisms.

In summary, Salesforce suggests that chatter communities should help solve multiple organizational objectives, to wit:

• eliminate "ghost town" problems where customers get no feedback;
• set-up solution channels for especially difficult or peculiar problems;
• integrate the various silos which provide customer support;
• capture customer knowledge;
• replace "noise" with real answers;
• establish a beginning point for newbies to check-in;
• help control negativity;
• demonstrate organizational credibility;
• measure the productivity, success, and ROI of support communities; and
• apply customer support activities to the larger data mining initiative.

-- scrubbed by MarketingBrillo