Why Marketing Professionals Need to Become Data Scientists
Marketing is becoming much more of a science. Why do I say this? Well because the ability to understand customers and markets has benefited from the vast quantities of data made available to marketers. So what does this change mean for marketing and marketers? In this article we take a look at what has changed and the possibilities this brings.
A silent revolution has taken place over the past twenty years whereby marketing has morphed with data analytics. Can a Zebra really change its stripes? Well yes it can at least some stripes, if not all. It is hard to think back to a time when there was no social media – marketing pfb, pt, pa, psm. If you are wondering what the initials stand for – pre:- facebook, twitter, amazon and social media.
So what changed?
It is only just over twenty years when Amazon started out and then just selling books online and haemorrhaging cash. Many predicted Amazon would not make it to the Millenium (2000). What was remarkable is that not only did it make it but it began to expand its product categories, no longer simply books. Along came Google, Facebook, Twitter and soon this avalanche of Tech companies began to change traditional business models. The way we thought things worked no longer seemed to fit with what we were all experiencing.
Beyond the tipping point
We were witnessing rapid and uncontrollable change in the ways in which business was done. There was something going on under the hood that we just could not see or quite grasp. Even insiders in the Tech companies were not exactly sure what it was they were creating but they knew it would disrupt the status quo. It was almost like the shell of the car appeared to be similar to what we knew and understood but the engine was dismantled, dispatched and completely rebuilt from scratch not using any of the old parts to construct the new one. Transformation was complete as we moved from analogue to digital business models.
The old cyclical and seasonal models from the analogue world with annual fixed budget period were breaking down. Yes, of course some remain but they are remnants of the past and sooner or later they will disappear completely. Inside this new tech world it was like these pioneers were the new buccaneers or pirates grabbing booty (assets) to build the new era- a digital age.
This meant change for marketing and those doing it too. Developing a marketing plan was still necessary but it had to be much faster and joining up tactics, operations with strategy had to be much tighter. To achieve this marketers had to get to grips with what the data was telling them. They needed to become fully acquainted with the numbers in real-time. You could not simply wait for the quarterly, monthly, weekly data. That is static data at points in time. You needed to know the flow of data and where it came from. So, enter the Data Scientist.
Data Science
According to Google’s Ngram the word data science received little attention prior to 2009 and had only limited mentions in books. The rise of the data scientist followed the rise of the ‘Big Tech Companies’. A quick search on LinkedIn for the term ‘Data Scientist’ revealed a return of 146,203 (6th Dec 2020) with an exact match as their job title. Back in 2015 it was suggested that there were 19,400 world-wide (blog.rjmetrics.com/2015/10/05/how-many-data-scientists-are-there). If the data are reliable there were just 13 per cent of the total today 5 years ago (a factor increase of 7.5). Put differently linear exponential rate of growth of 50 per cent per annum.
Exponential Growth
(y) = a * (1 + r) ^x
= 19,400 x (1.5) ^5
In this case Y is 146,203
Analyzing data requires skills beyond those normally within the remit of many marketing professionals. Future marketing professionals will need to acquire the necessary analytical skills and apply them as second nature if they want to understand customer actions. Interpretation is key to understanding any data. So you need to know what the data is telling you and what it means for marketing plans. Much of the data will come into organizations through traditional channels from existing customers. However, many opportunities will need to be identified from data held externally. It is essential to know the availability of external data-sets that your organization could use effectively and to negotiate access, if it is not freely available. Large quantities of data are of course freely available. In such cases it is necessary for marketers to think like data scientists by asking the right questions – What data? Who owns it? Why was it gathered? How is it used? When was it collected? Is it relevant to us? How can we use it to create marketing advantage? Marketers able to combine their internal data with external data will be well placed to create competitive advantage.