Are You Losing Control of Big Data?

What pops into your head when you think of Big Data?
Does it really matter to you?
How and why?

Recently we hear of Big Data so often that we're getting sick of it. When this term just appeared, it sounded like a rising star which people were going crazing for. After the presidential election was over, suddenly it became an out-of-controlled troublemaker. So confusing, huh? Let' do not be misled by angry voices. Calm down. Take one step back. And think it through. We are rational marketers.

Big Data, Is It Really Good?

Yes, it makes your life much more convenient. As a consumer/user, you will get useful information, also called ads, about a right product/service at right time in a right place. You don't need to repeat saying your name (or ID) and your phone number (or Password). The store even remembers what you were interested in, and what you put in or take out of your cart. As an advertiser/seller, you know who your customers/users are in various perspectives, such as demographic, geographic, behavioral and attitudinal. Every click is tracked and recorded, so data knows about you more and better than anyone else.

But no, it's creepy that someone is watching you all the time. You've lived in Panopticon without even noticing that you're there. Sometimes it bugs me in inappropriate ways. For example, I researched hair re-growth products for my final project last semester. Since then, all kinds of hair re-growth products and services started to tail me (Thanks, Mr. remarketing!) for a while. Hey, Big Data, I thought it's a piece of cake for you to figure out my age. Even if I really buy one for someone else, it's annoying and embarrassing that my web page would be plastered with something irrelevant.

Big Data Is Not A God

Big Data is just a huge amount of data. Data itself is not a solution to a problem. Before you get excited about the advanced technology of collecting all data, think about why and how it will benefit you. Having a thousand books does not guarantee a student doing great at school. Too much data would rather cause indigestion, confusion, or mislead you. According to research, 1 in 3 biz leaders doesn't trust the information they use to make decisions. 27% of respondents in on survey were unsure of how much of their data was inaccurate. Poor data quality costs the US economy around $3.1 trillion a year.

The scariest thing is the inaccuracy of data as we learned from this election and Facebook's fake news. It's not only scary but also dangerous. What if those fake news really had a huge impact on the presidential election, so the result could've been the opposite? What if people think and behave differently based on false data and the difference change others' lives? In the worst case, war could break out. Hacking is an online version of war, I think.

Circle Up, Marketers!

There you go, marketers. It's time to get involved deeply in Big Data world. Since data itself does not replace decision making, we need to know how to play with it. From approaching the data to making a decision, professionals from various fields should be engaged in the process to analyze the data with insights.

Before jumping into analyzing any data, consider questions as below.

How was the data/number calculated?
What is it implying and inferring?
Any errors or exceptions?
Other things to be considered?
How would the data impact in short-term and long-term?

For marketers, Big Data is a great source for making a better world by making better decisions. To get the most out of it, we need to be ahead of the data and take control of it. When we take hands off the steering key, no one knows where and how this ship will end up.

6 Things to Know About Social Media

How many social media accounts do you have?
How many of them do you use daily?

Seriously, I can't live without social media, even though I'm not an influencer who has millions of followers. I love to read news, watch videos, check out cool events, and see what my 'friends' do daily. Sharing inspiring contents is also one of my favorites. Of course, I spend a lot of time in social media.

However, I don't feel guilty at all. I don't think it's a time-wasting habit. It is a universal phenomenon and our life style is changing. The below facts about social media will help you understand how 'normal' we are.

How A Cosmetics Startup Beat Big Brands With Digital Ads

How many makeup brands can you name right now?

How many makeup products do you (for guys - female around you) have? 

As we can tell from countless brands and products, people LOVE makeup. The U.S. beauty industry is a $56.63 billion market and the revenue of the U.S. cosmetic industry is estimated to amount to about $62.46 billion in 2016. On top of that, digital has played a significant role in boosting up the industry by catching consumers attention in various ways.

Pixability’s new study analyzes the YouTube practices of 215 beauty brands and 182,621 independent YouTube beauty creators. 51% of them focused on makeup. In 2015, more than 45.3 billion viewers watched YouTube videos and over 169 million Facebook posts were shared. Once you consume cosmetics-related contents, Mr. remarketing/retargeting start to tail you showing ads here and there when you surf the Internet. 

Birchbox - A box of Cosmetics, Not Chocolates

Thanks to great strategies on digital contents and ads, some smaller brands are killing it. Birchbox is a New York City-based online monthly subscription service that sends its subscribers a box of four to five selected samples of makeup, or other beauty related products. Full-sized products are offered on its e-commerce site. It was born in 2010, and rapidly expanded; now having more than 1 million customers. Here are what Birchbox is doing and how it is doing with digital ads.

1. Influencers

The genius of WOM(Word-Of-Mouth)! Research shows that viewers trust creators more than they trust brands. Therefore, influencer marketing is a cost-efficient way to promote consumer products since it is a combination of online and offline marketing. Please remember marketing is human to human!

Birchbox recently launched its in-house makeup line, LOC (Love of Color), and use beauty vloggers and bloggers to curate new products on a seasonal basis. They started with Tati Westbrook (GlamLife Guru), who has more than a million YouTube subscribers. Tati’s large fan base and universal appeal were a perfect choice for the launch of LOC.

The results were immediate: Love of Color launched on Oct. 16, 2015, and by Oct. 21, 2015, it was 258% ahead of its sales plan for that year. Brittany Tomkiewicz, Senior Manager of Acquisition Marketing at Birchbox, said the brand itself jumped up to one of Birchbox’s top 15 makeup brands of 2015, even with only two and a half months left in the calendar year.

Birchbox teamed up with Emily Schuman, a beauty and lifestyle blogger that runs Cupcakes and Cashmere, who has more than 260,000 Instagram followers. The partnership involved five Instagram photos promoting the products inside one of Birchbox’s monthly kits. The simple partnership resulted in 18,000 likes and reached more than 550,000 consumers.

Influencers can be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars just to take some photos. And those payments have continued to rise each year as brands recognize the effectiveness of influencer marketing. According to SocialPR Chat, marketers that implemented influencer marketing campaigns earned an average of $6.85 in media value for every $1 they spent on paid media. And 81 percent of marketers say influencer marketing is effective.

2. Facebook & Instagram Campaign

May 2016, Birchbox released a six-week campaign with two videos on Facebook and Instagram to increase brand awareness and reach to a new potential consumer demographic, 'multitasking women with only a casual interest in beauty products'. Each video features a representative woman of new target-demographic; “Modern Day Ninja” Lauren, a police officer juggling her career with three kids, and “Modern Day Virtuoso” Christine, a lawyer.

The two videos are shown to non-followers on Facebook and Instagram, and then those prospect consumers find the second series of additional ads educating them on the subscription box retailer. All ads will drive users directly to the Birchbox subscribe page. Unfortunately, it was very hard to find the videos. Below is the capture of the campaign.

Heena's Review

Smart strategies! This small cosmetics brand has been a smart kid in this bloody competitive market. For cosmetics, great reviews are almost a must-have feature of the product. Birchbox optimized influencer marketing on its strongest social media channels and made the most powerful word-of-mouth system. With a well-designed marketing plan, Birchbox successfully pushed a campaign using Facebook and Instagram ads. Needless to say, their banner displays on Facebook and Instagram and search ads are doing great!

The digital ads mentioned above are given to all. However, not everyone takes advantage of them. You need to know yourself first. Know your brand image and unique features, and then analyze your customers. This smart kid, Birchbox, knows well about its target audience and comes up with digital ads that can maximize the ROI.

How A Facebook Post Could Put You Out Of Business

Have you ever deleted or edited your post on social media because it was not appropriate?
Have you ever been disappointed with your friend's or favorite brand's awkward post?

When I was in the late teenage and the early twenties, I often found many of my friends wrote a post on their social media to blame someone unknown (probably that 'unknown' person would know the post is toward him/her while reading), which made me uncomfortable. That behavior disappointed me a lot because I think it was not cool at all to be afraid to talk out so attack someone in that dirty way.

The more social media gets popular, the more likely it becomes a double-edged sword. It is a cost and time efficient, convenient, and fun way to communicate with others for you as an individual or as a brand. It's also a great tool to express yourself. However, at the same time, your own words could fatally harm you. If you realize you make a mistake, take an action as soon as possible. As a famous proverb says, there is no use crying over spilled milk. Clean up as quick as possible and be careful not to spill the milk again.

 A Terrible Ad Parodying 9/11

A local mattress brand, Miracle Mattress, in San Antonio, Texas, did something terribly wrong. It posted a video ad on its Facebook page promoting a “Twin Towers Sale” that parodies the World Trade Center towers collapsing.

In the video, two employees stand in front of two towers of mattresses and an American Flag, while the store’s manager saying 'yes, every mattress is at a twin mattress price'. The employees then fall down over the mattress towers with surprised reaction, and the manager screams and then throw the last line, “We’ll never forget,” with a smile.

This video provoked a crowd furious reaction. Many people blamed the company saying that 'it disrespected the families who lost loved ones and continue to struggle with the pain of this tragedy every day of their lives'. On its facebook page, hundreds of angry comments were left under not only the deleted video but also other past and later posts.

Apology, Apology, And Apology...

I couldn't find the exact date of when the video was posted, but based on the labor day promotion on 9/5 and the posted apology letter on 9/8, I assumed the tragedy happened 9/6 or 9/7. Speaking of the reaction time, Miracle Mattress very quickly responded and apologized. As soon as it recognized that something wrong, it took an action. Then how did they show their sincerity?

On 9/8,  Miracle Mattress apologized using its Facebook page and uploaded a letter.

On the following day, the company announced to close the store indefinitely to avoid any further distraction during the period of 9/11 anniversary.

A week later, the owner posted another letter describing what the company learned from this case and the future plans to help people suffering from terrorism and traumatic loss.

The store manager, the owner's daughter, who was on the video also apologized with tears on news interview.

Heena's Review

Definitely, this video ad crossed the line. A tragedy cannot be parodied for any reason. I was very surprised that this commercial was approved and went online without intervention. Who on earth thought of using a terror attack on a mattress commercial?

Regardless, I appreciate that the company responded quickly and put a lot of effort to recover. In any case of crisis, a real quick response and a sincere apology must be the first things to be done. The owner announced apology several times sincerely and quickly. The store was closed for a while to regret its wrongdoings and to cool off the steam. In addition to that, Miracle Mattress made a donation to Tuesday’s Children in New York to support youth, families, and communities impacted by terrorism and traumatic loss.

This crisis could have been avoided if there was a sturdy marketing plan. Marketing should be responsible for PR, since PR is a part of marketing tactics. Miracle Mattress should have evaluated its commercial before let it go online with the questions such as listed below.
'The content (9/11) of our post is relevant to our goal (sales)?'
'Does it match our marketing concept?'
'How is it like to be in the long-term?'
'Is it ethical?'
'Who would like/dislike this?'

Not only companies and brands but also celebrities and politicians make terrible mistakes on their social media these days. Actually we, as normal individuals, also cause social media crisis. We have to think twice before let our words go out. Once a mistake happens, take a quick action and apologize.