Data collection has become an obsession of marketers in particular, but all sorts of other assorted boffins as well. We have data up to the wahzoo, and do not know what to do with it all. So, we throw it against the wall and come up with all sorts of nonsensical stuff designed to sell digital ads to marketers too silly to think clearly about what they are doing, and why they should be doing it with digital.
Data is now a huge, though largely unmapped industry, infested with data snips designed to track consumers so they can be targeted by advertisers, or perhaps more accurately, promised by the sellers of digital space to silly advertisers with too much of someone else’s money to spend.
The only industry that has actually done well in this mess are the scammers, and those who produce ad blockers, which in itself is a measure of how poorly served we are.
Advertising used to be the means by which we were delivered information important to making purchase decisions. Now digital advertising is used as a means to follow up, make money for the scammers and fraudsters, and occasionally, set about delivering information to someone who wants it.
The new competitive advantage is not to get more data, but to be able to turn the data you have into actionable market intelligence.
This brings us back to the foundation of advertising and marketing, understanding your customer better than your opposition. Given they usually have the same data set as you, your competitive advantage is in the use you make of it.
Header cartoon courtesy Tom Fishburne at www.marketoonist.com
