
Metaphors are powerful ways to influence thinking and change behavior. Both are needed in Marketing organizations today. We’ve idealized the pursuit of a data-driven marketing culture for at least the last eight years now. But, truth is, most of us have fallen short. Something is missing at the core. And it isn’t technology.
As I begin my new role as Director of Marketing Analytics for SAP Cloud CRM & Financials – and reflect on my last year as a digital intelligence consultant working for companies of all shapes and sizes – I do so with the affirmation that the key to data-driven success lies is in how we use (or don’t) data to engage and motivate our teams. My motto: Data helps, people deliver.
[What does that mean exactly? I think this short T-Mobile T-Force Team video (2:14) illustrates the point. I
agree, Krissy, “the magic is in the people.”]
To get to where I think we ought to be going, I suggest that we start to think about data analytics differently. At least in Marketing. We need to stop focusing on what data is and instead focus on what we want data to do for us. Our relationship to data needs to get more practical, not esoteric.
Mainstream metaphors like Big Data, for example, just don’t serve marketing teams well. To be perfectly honest, I wish it abolished from the marketing lexicon altogether (relegated to a footnote referencing a period prior to data-driven enlightenment for my fellow marketeers). “Actionable” data is certainly better – it conveys an ideal outcome – but the problem is that data seldom (if ever) takes any action under its “own” volition (a topic/debate for another time).
People give data value. That’s the truth. And the more valuable the data is perceived to be the more actionable it becomes. Value and action are positively correlated. Quite literally, insight is in the eye of the beholder.
So, why aren’t the beholders much more involved?
We really can’t afford to be passive consumers of data anymore (there are already far too many “doorstop reports” in circulation). We need to roll up our sleeves and interact with data. Get up to our elbows in it.
Data represents opportunity. This opportunity should be a great mobilizer. As marketing teams, we should be proactively exploring and probing these opportunities, considering different scenarios, testing hypotheses – and using data as storytelling attributes!
Human learning is context driven. Asking questions of data creates context – and often writes the story “byline” featured in our marketing reports – much like the back and forth of a dialogue. Don’t underestimate The Power of Why to fuel innovation and drive change (@AmandaLang_CBC). The result is very often the formation of a constructive and cooperative learning environment within marketing teams. And remember, it’s okay to leave some room for failure, the wager of any meaningful discovery or innovation (one reason, in fact, to be excited about the future of marketing!)
And – this is also the truth – you don’t have to be data scientists to take advantage of the opportunity. If you are curious, care, and can ask good questions – that ultimately take the shape of testable hypotheses – then you are well on your way to being a valued shepherd of data-driven activity within your marketing team.
So, without further ado, here are three data metaphors that I think start to pull at some of these chords:
“Data! Data! Data!” he cried impatiently, “I cannot make bricks without clay!” – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sir A. Conan Doyle, 1892
— Robb MacDonald (@RobbMacD01) September 26, 2013
I love this quote. Our beloved Sherlock Holmes needs data (“clay”) to solve a mystery. He is “crying impatiently” because he is restless to make an evidence-based extrapolation, to draw a conclusion, or form a new hypothesis. Sherlock Holmes stories are adventures and – on the very best days, anyway – that is what data analysis is to me.
Let these metaphors wash over you for a while. Use them, build on them, or spit them out…as you choose. But if you’re still struggling to be a data-driven within your marketing teams then try to think of new metaphors that might positively influence thinking and behavior. And if you come up with some good ones then I would love to hear about them!
Connect with me on Twitter:
Follow @RobbMacD01