Big Data refers to having a dataset so large and complex that you cannot process it using the regular database management tools. The definition of Big Data, however, is a moving target. There is no specific limit on data size to qualify as “big” and it can depend on the organization managing the data set’s capabilities. Download related templates @ http://www.demandmetric.com/content/value-using-big-data

1. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Value of Using Big Data
By Jerry Rackley, Chief Analyst
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Traditionally, marketers connected with individuals through surveys,
focus groups or mall intercept surveys. Today, we have come quite far
from tradition, finding ways to accumulate much more information about
the intimate behaviors of our consumers.
Think of yourself as a consumer, going about your regular day. You
communicate using your cell phone, post to Facebook, send out a Tweet,
browse the internet, make purchases, share music, search for something
of interest online. As a consumer, you wouldn’t think twice about those
daily activities. However, as a marketer, we realize that through these
actions, customers are creating their own enormous trails of data. This
data represents a current hot topic for marketers: Big Data.
By definition, Big Data is a large dataset so complex it defies processing
and analysis using existing database management tools. Big Data comes
in many forms, both structured and unstructured, such as web-based
digital images, online videos, blogs, chats, forums, internal data, GPS
signals and purchase transaction records, to name a few. An
overwhelming amount of data exists – how can marketers manage this
data and use it to their advantage?
This How-To Guide will outline the following:
 What is Big Data?
 How to manage the overwhelming amounts of data using the 3 V’s
 How marketers can benefit from Big Data

2. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
 Challenges that marketers may face
 Action plan for getting started with Big Data
WHAT IS BIG DATA?
Big Data refers to having a dataset so large and complex that you cannot
process it using the regular database management tools. The definition of
Big Data, however, is a moving target. There is no specific limit on data
size to qualify as “big” and it can depend on the organization managing
the data set’s capabilities.
Big Data can come from many different sources, both internal and
external, including but not limited to: sensors, posts to social media sites,
digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, MP3’s, online
sharing, cell phone records, etc. Companies are creating a vast amount of
data as it becomes more accessible through these sources.
DESCRIBING BIG DATA
The three common factors for describing Big Data are the 3 V’s: high
volume, high velocity and high variety. Big Data is essentially
information that requires new forms of processing to integrate with
decision-making, discovering new opportunities and optimizing the
process. Here is the description of the 3 V’s:
 Volume (Large amounts of data) – there is a very large amount
of data that is becoming accessible to marketers. This volume of
data provides opportunity for those who develop the capacity to
process it.
 Velocity (Speed) – The rate at which the data is coming or
changing, and how quickly it’s used to create real value. Velocity
increases as the rate at which data flows into the organization
grows. With so many sources of information, data is available at
increasingly rapid speeds.
 Variety (Types) – The diversity of data types and sources. This
data is both structured and unstructured data, and examples include
movie files, images, documents, text, call center notes, geo-
location data and others in an increasingly wide variety.

3. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
THREE KEY ADVANTAGES FOR MARKETERS
 Advantage #1: ROI – Marketing has always been a difficult
discipline to demonstrate ROI and it’s under constant pressure to
demonstrate true business value. Big Data analysis is proving
invaluable at helping drive business decisions across various
organizations and having a role in improving ROI.
Big Data allows marketers to capitalize on unmet needs in key
market segments and can facilitate real-time ROI measurement.
For example, spending on digital marketing, projected to
significantly increase by 2015, is being fueled by the ability to
demonstrate marketing ROI using Big Data. This increase also
provides us with more data to analyze, placing more beneficial
research at our disposal.
 Advantage #2: Creates Value & New Opportunities –Marketers
create value using Big Data in many ways by allowing greater
information transparency, making insights from that data more
accessible and usable for marketers.
Big Data analytics can expose variability by collecting more
accurate and detailed performance information. Using Big Data,
you can achieve more precise segmentation of customers that in
turn lets you tailor your products and services to better meet their
needs. Big Data analytics creates value by enabling data-driven
decision-making on a level and scale previously not possible
because of the sophisticated analytics involved.
One of the greatest advantages of Big Data is the ability to create
an optimized and personalized marketing strategy. The analysis of
Big Data allows marketers to create highly personalized marketing
approaches based on what you can understand about individual
customers and their buying patterns. Furthermore, this level of
analysis can provide insights that allow marketers to more
effectively allocate their marketing budgets and achieve a higher
ROI. Predictive analytics using Big Data can even help
organizations understand how customers will respond to a
proposed price change. The exploitation of Big Data provides
organizations with tremendous opportunities to gain competitive
advantages.

4. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
 Advantage #3: Improving Analysis – Incorporating data from
many different sources can help improve the process and detect
problems more quickly. Adding an analysis of social media to the
mix, you can understand how their customers feel about your
product or service, which is remarkably valuable.
Analyzing Big Data trends can help develop strategies with the
messages you can deliver and when. For example if you analyze
the data from coupons sent out and merge that information with
regional data, demographic data and average spend data, you can
start to paint a picture of who your best customers are and how
best to connect with them in the future.
CHALLENGES
Although there are many opportunities for marketers to take advantage of
big data, there are also a number of challenges presented. The main
challenges include:
 Volume – The sheer volume of data presents a challenge in how to
properly manage all the data and ensure the amount of storage
space is available. The proper management and analytics software
is required to analyze all the data. In addition, the right analytics
skills are needed to perform the analysis and deliver results.
 Importance – Another challenge is capturing which data is most
important, finding the most important data as it happens and
delivering it to the right people. Marketers may find it challenging
to make use of the information once it is discovered and find the
meaning of the important data.
 Harmonization – Data harmonization is often a challenge.
Organizations typically have volumes of data in different formats,
structures and databases, making it difficult if not impossible to
have a single, harmonized view of it all. Harmonizing data from
disparate data sources is often a barrier to Big Data analytics
success.
 Security – Issues with security, privacy, cloud storage and
information theft are all issues that have been linked to the age of
big data.

5. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Although there are risks and challenges involved with analyzing Big
Data, when managed properly, the insights marketers can obtain from this
data provides marketers with a significant advantage.
ACTION PLAN
Get started with big data by implementing the following steps:
1. Vision – Success with Big Data begins with articulating a vision
for leveraging it. For most organizations, this means harnessing
relevant data and using it to make the better decisions.
 Your vision should lead to aligning any Big Data initiative
with specific business goals.
2. Skills – Most organizations don’t have the skills in-house to
pursue Big Data initiatives. Identify your skills deficiencies and
put a plan in place to acquire them.
 Skills are necessary to design and implement Big Data
architecture and also perform the analytics work.
 Consider using a third party company to provide consulting
services to help establish an Analytics Center of Excellence
within your company.
3. Architecture & Systems – Design your Big Data architecture:
this is the System design, data flows, timing, and data models
required to support a Big Data initiative.
 Consider the alternatives for a platform and tool set you
will use and make recommendations for them.
4. Pilot – Identify a pilot project to prove the value of Big Data that
uses your data to solve a real problem.
 Your pilot project will provide the basis for a business case
to make a long-term investment in Big Data analytics, and
also create the necessary internal support.

6. How-To Guide
© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
 Use the results of your Big Data pilot to help define the
right metrics for measuring future success.
5. Business Case – Combine the results of your pilot with the
recommendations for architecture and systems to develop and
present a business case for investing in Big Data.
BOTTOM LINE
By using Big Data, organizations can seize the opportunity to
improve marketing ROI, develop new opportunities, tailor
promotions to specific target markets and help optimize marketing
strategy. Big Data is a game-changer with the capability to drive better
decisions while disrupting many industries. It is a real and growing
discipline, often housed with the Business Intelligence unit of a company.
Successful companies are using Big Data and analytics to compete more
effectively, because it provides one of the best ways to deeply understand
and engage customers in a way that inspires greater loyalty.