Marketing with Big Data and IoT: Never Waste Potential

Marketers as Data Scientists

Quite a few marketing experts are quite enamored with their field - getting the consumer to buy what they're selling is an undeniable thrill. But nowadays, the concept of marketing seems to be a double-edged sword- are you catering to the consumer's tastes, or are you creating tastes that the consumer will cater to? Well, that's quite a chicken and egg question- which can be left to the combined forces of culture theory and economics. We, however, are interested in something that is making marketing even more personalized, efficient, and far-reaching-we`re talking about the Internet of Things.

Marketing experts worth their salt are increasingly using big data with predictive analytics to get into the minds of their consumers, giving them targeted doses of their campaign instead of an intrusive, bombarding approach. Research becomes paramount, and what can certainly solidify research?

The answer is a lot of data. Now, where will this data come from? The answer is - from the billions of devices that will transmit data, all enabled by the Internet of Things. Consumer Interactivity will be way off the charts when all this big data is systematically analyzed and processed. How companies and individuals handle this intense stream of traffic will make all the difference in the interconnected world.

51% of the world's top global marketers expect IoT to revolutionize the marketing landscape by 2020. After looking at some consumer evolutions, the ways marketers will use IoT changes to suit the data-driven marketing view. In short, marketers are all set to become data scientists, and this article attempts to shed some light on this phenomenon.

Products Become the Source

While many big data companies and the like rely on garnering a lot of information from specialized, secondary sources, which they have had to pay since not many have the time to research every aspect, IoT quickly changes all that.

Here all things are converted into IoT devices with the help of sensors. Thus, there is a definite possibility of the products becoming the source of the data itself, eliminating the middlemen. With the right processing capabilities, big data can indeed become a powerful tool.

The big data analytics market will soon surpass $200 billion. IDC expects big data technology and service-related revenues to grow with a five-year CAGR of 15.6% over the forecast period of 2019-24. Besides being the industry with the largest investment in big data and business analytics solutions, banking will see the fastest spending growth.

But what are the different ways in which you can generate and innovate use this data? Let s take a look with the help of a few examples.

Truly Innovative Marketing

IoT can give you an edge and truly generate innovative (at the risk of using the blatantly abused word to describe marketing and in marketing as well) marketing campaigns. Your products can be used powerfully and can boast features that you could never have imagined possible if just converted into things for IoT.

Say you come out with a special edition of Coke. An IoT device can transmit information to the internet- let's say, it updates your social media when you finish its contents. Though you still have to create the content, Brian Morris- a freelance writer currently working at a college essay writing service says:” It is more convenient to rely on IoT to take care of the content I created. By this, I can focus on the more creative part of my job” Multiply this phenomenon by a hundred-thousand-fold, and you can see the potential of data collection in this immeasurable fashion.

Fitbit is already doing this to drive their campaign - the Fitbit itself gathers statistics from the device and gives the users the option of putting it on social media. This informs the user s friends about their activities, promotes Fitbit itself, and tells the world to think about the benefits of buying it; not-too-subliminally.

Amazon has already decided to use IoT to their decisive advantage this way - with the help of their dash buttons. These buttons are product specific and allow the products to get marketed while also replenishing the consumer s supplies whenever needed at the press of an IoT-enabled button.

As you can already see, all these serve to create great opportunities and USPS for your product. Take something as paltry as a ceiling fan- that relic of old, so easily archaic, but wait. Have you heard of Big Ass Fans? That is their name, I'm not joking, but smart fans have sensors that gauge speed, light, and temperatures. They are remotely app-controlled and can be set according to the User s preferences. This makes the ordinary fan garner such value!
Tesla has featured in our articles quite frequently and with good reason. Remember the car Wi-Fi update? Read about it here if you haven't already, but updating a product s configuration through the airwaves is extremely revolutionary. This gives Tesla the added edge when it comes to troubleshooting and releasing new features on the fly.

Brand Authenticity and Protection

IoT is great for enabling brand protection. Counterfeit cultures are altogether too real, and brands who struggle to differentiate themselves from competitors don't need added pressure from rip-offs cutting into their share.
With an IoT-enabled product, you can showcase authenticity that is digital and exclusive. Everything the IoT solutions provider has a Brand Protection solution that lets inspection teams directly authenticate products and re-purposes the real-time data created by consumer-product interactions to solve brand protection challenges at an even greater scale.

As consumers engage with your product to access personalized marketing experiences, the same interaction data also checks product authenticity for your supply chain. For example, by scanning a smart tag on the label or packaging with their smartphone,

Real-time information about location, time, and usage of uniquely identified, serialized items generates rich data analytics and customized alerts to help detect product tampering, counterfeiting, and parallel trading.
All this in one package, and the possibilities are still limitless. This is just one service that does this. Also, with intelligent packaging, your consumers will never get the raw end by purchasing tampered/contaminated products- this not only boosts the consumers’ decision-making and reinforces your own brand image as sturdy and trustworthy.

IoT also enables transparency. All the information is naked, there for the consumer to see such that they are not deceived. This again garners more trust.

Collaboration Redefined

IoT, lastly, also allows for innovative collaboration opportunities between brands that can synchronize their services into one single offering. Take Uber and Spotify's partnership, for example, the two apps can now be connected, and the Uber app can be used to play music while you take your cab comfortably to its destination. This improves the customer experience and helps retain customers by getting them locked into their product ecosystem.