Big Data: Analytics And Their Influence On The Customer
Big Data, a movement towards strategy moulded by analytics, has disrupted the world of business drastically in the 21st century, and the food and beverage industry is no exception. Improvements in technology and ease in gathering data, along with the widespread adoption of mobile devices being a necessity in the lives of the majority, have been the key drivers in making data-based decisions so effective.
Leading companies in the global food and beverage sector,
such as Coca-cola, Pepsi and McDonalds use data-management platforms or
marketing clouds as their primary methods of gathering huge amounts of data to
create very specific personalised ads. These systems gather first-party data, secondary-party
data and third-party data. First-party data is generated through the activities
of the person in question, such as activity on a website or the use of a
loyalty card. Secondary-party data is data collected by a company and sold to others,
and third-party data is “drawn from thousands of sources, and can include
demographic, financial, and other data-broker information (Montgomery et al.,
2017)
An idea of which the morals and intentions have created some
conflicting opinions is that of the nudge. To paraphrase from “Carolan, 2018”, a
data-driven nudge is a way for companies to tell the consumer what to buy,
while still providing them with perceived freedom of choice. An example of a
data-driven nudge can be seen on Amazon when being shown “suggested products” or “what
people who also bought this product are buying”. Another example, provided in “Carolan,
2018” is that of suggested products on the “my list” section of grocery store
mobile apps, which are one of the many drivers towards the leaders in the
industry, and away from independent suppliers. While in theory people can
explore all of the potential options to fulfil their requirement, our browser
tendencies (rarely going beyond the first page of Google search results)
indicate that convenience is often key when we make decisions.
These examples only scratch the surface of big data, but are
hopefully enough to convey the message that every company with the resources to
do so is moving towards knowing the consumer and their behaviour more than the consumer
themselves, and moulding their efforts towards providing an easy solution
to their upcoming requirements. Big data is increasingly often making the consumer’s
decisions for them while also theoretically not cutting off any choices for
them. Whether this is a positive or a negative on a global scale is yet to be
seen, but being aware of it is a step in the right direction regardless.
#BigData #Pepsi #CocaCola #McDonalds #Nudging
Author: Jamie Carty
References
·
Montgomery, K., Chester, J., Nixon, L., Levy, L.
and Dorfman, L., 2017. Big Data and the transformation of food and beverage
marketing: undermining efforts to reduce obesity?. Critical Public
Health, 29(1), pp.111-112.
·
Carolan, M., 2018. Big data and food retail:
Nudging out citizens by creating dependent consumers. Geoforum, 90,
pp.142-150.
I agree that one of the main reasons why a consumer accepts their personal data being used for algorithmic suggestions is convenience. I also found your discussion interesting about using consumer behavior data and predictive analytics to suggest a consumer’s favourite items and generate new/alternative choices at the same time. As big data becomes prevalent, food industry businesses are pushed to ensure that their users have an in-dept understanding of how their information is being used and to accept responsibility for the consequences of the algorithms they have developed. The Association for Computing Machinery have developed principles to ensure fair use of personal data and algorithms by these businesses, including explaining the algorithm’s logic in ways that humans can understand, to justify the suggestions they receive. Although this information is now available due to the roll out of GDPR in 2018, in 2021 it is not pushed towards user’s attention. At a time when consumers are more interested than ever about purchasing from ethical and sustainable food producers, and in knowing a product was generated in an authentic way, the same vigor is not shared for finding out how the data generated from our purchase will be used for re-targeting these products back to us.
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Elizabeth Duffy
One of the biggest benefits for company’s gathering data, is certainly to encourage customers to buy products and creating highly targeted adds. I agree that creating convenience and easy positive shopping experiences is the motivation for customers to share their data freely.
ReplyDeleteBut is this landscape changing, will the use of big data be evolving to making the decisions for customers with a shift to predictive analytics? An example of this is Amazon who recently obtained a patent on a new despatching feature which will ship goods directly to customers before they have even bought it. (Marr, 2015)
Is this the future of data analytics, will it continue to be used for highly targeted ads but also predict customers behaviour? Amazon is one of the biggest operators in grocery delivery services, is this the future of the food industry and how customers convenience will develop.
References:
Marr, B., 2015. Big Data Case Study Collection. 1st ed. Willey, pp.27-30.
Author
Deirbhile Coyle