Defining, directing and managing your own digital data is crucial for success

“Trust no one; trust only what the experiments and the data tell you”

Sir Paul Nurse – President of the Royal Society “Science under Attack” 2010 BBC Documentary

Ok so perhaps we shouldn’t take the first part of this statement too literally, collaboration after all is an essential part of marketing development today but when it comes to consumer insight however, parallels can certainly be drawn from the sentiment of the latter half of Sir Paul’s statement.

This BBC documentary was about why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded, but as Sir Paul Nurse discussed the issue, my mind detached itself from the messages on the cathode ray, and onto one simple and firm held thought – make sure you have full access, availability and understanding of all the facts.

I mean, in simple terms, why not, the data is yours, why shouldn’t you?

All too often we see businesses contracting out their insights ability – to a certain extent this is fine, you need people digging around the data on your behalf, but this digital world we now inhabit has thrown up a multitude of ways to identify your consumers’ interests, it’s not simple anymore. If we’re not careful we’ll drown in data and it’s all too easy to follow what looks like an important thread and head off down the wrong path. Ultimately only you will know what’s relevant to drive your business forward. As the brand owner, you are THE best placed person to direct and interpret all of these learnings into real insights about your brand. Only you know exactly what you should be looking for and what you need to achieve.

The challenge is that as the brand owner, if you have not fully defined the information you need to understand upfront; have not fully embraced the analytics and monitoring tools available – working with them only at arms length – the likelihood is that you will miss the real and relevant nuggets of insight that could firmly plant you on the path to setting your brand apart from the rest.

In our previous blog “Getting Valuable insight from data” we talked about how digital data is crucial to business insights, and that companies should establish regular and easily accessible systems; being in control of those tools, understanding the raw data and being clear how it impacts on your clearly defined objectives is equally important.

So work with others to find and interpret information, absolutely, but make sure that you and your business first and foremost are clear about the metrics you need in place and that you have internal capability and direct access to the raw data. This is the best truth out there – only you will understand exactly what that means for your business and brand.