Had an interesting chat with an old colleague of mine the
other day who came through the old school marketing ranks (to be fair, so did
I), he spent a lot of time in a senior data role in a telecoms company we both worked
for; and he has kept the strong ethos that marketing should be strongly
data-led first and foremost, it should be the driving force behind the strategy
and tactics of the business.
I disagree to some extent, there are obviously times when
data is incredibly important (predominately if you are doing some qualitative research
on what your target market(s) think about you or you are analysing analytics
from campaigns or web site etc), but this should only inform you and not be the
single driving force behind any major business decisions or campaigns.
Data (just like technology) enables opportunities for
marketers, but the creativity is where the real value is created.
I think we see this problem occurring everyday, big brands push
their flashing advertising on us, but very little of it sticks in the minds of
the consumers – they lack the creativity needed to be memorable (and therefore
successful), I’m sure the data says the execution was perfect, but if it doesn’t
hold consumers interest or create that desire, you’ve lost the war.
So yes, data is important, let it drive discussion and
debate in the boardrooms (I’m all for that), but never let it drive business
decisions; creativity is what’s needed to drive the creation of the value, and
it’s this value which will ultimately decide whether your strategies and tactics
are successful.
