We are in the dawn of the Recommendation Age, and analytics are more important than ever. We believe that if you can measure it, you can sell it. And, that’s the bottom line of interactive marketing. At McElroy, we’re focused on Prescriptive Analytics – getting beyond the data dump to real site improvements. That’s where the data hierarchy comes in.
Not to get biblical, but …
In the beginning, there was the data, and it was without form and void, and generally incomprehensible for decision-making. So the designated analysts or tools set about categorizing and formatting the data, giving it shape and re-presenting it in a way that provides directional information. The product of this work illustrates major areas of activity, quantifies things like traffic or response volumes, perhaps it includes funnels representing buy-flow or campaign completion as well.
Spreadsheets, graphs and charts are created to deliver this "Information" up the line, and they call it "Reporting". This "Information delivery" is the current state of reporting in most organizations. This is the world in which most Marketing Managers find themselves. It amounts to little more than a dump of the data, albeit summarized and categorized for easier navigation. This type of reporting certainly provides Information; but it doesn’t truly provide the Knowledge we seek.
Knowledge occurs when you apply a deeper level of understanding. It is true intelligence, taking the information provided and synthesizing from it the actions required based on understanding. Prescriptive Analytics means understanding the data at a level that informs and supports tactical changes in your marketing. These are the "ah-ha’s" that truly inform decision-making and provide a grounded rationale for future activity.
If you want to get beyond the data dump, you’ve got to apply smart thinking to get to what’s going to really matter to the bottom line.
Posted by Kimberly Ramin on April 18, 2007 @ 4:37 PM
Filed under: Robots
There's more 'innovation' happening than ever before. New brands, new niches, new concepts, new products, new services, and new experiences are flooding an equally fast expanding number of markets. Here are 41 new business ideas begging to be copied...
Read INNOVATION AVALANCHE »
Ethoxydiglycol Back in the '50s, home hair dyes were laced with toxic chemicals that turned a simple touch-up into a haz-mat operation. Luckily, dye makers found substitutes like EDG, a fume- free organic solvent that keeps the ingredients in a thin, pourable consistency.
Oleyl Alcohol, Vegetable Fatty Acid That thin, pourable consistency would be problematic during application. Mixing the base with the separate bottle of "color developer" causes these two fatty organic thickeners to kick in, making the product cling to your hair like shampoo.
Ethanolamine In last month's episode of What's Inside, this ingredient starred as a solvent in Easy-Off oven cleaner. Here it's an alkalizer that boosts the pH toward bleachlike levels and swells the hair's outer layer so the color can penetrate more fully.
Erythorbic Acid If you take ascorbic acid — aka vitamin C — and rearrange the atoms just so (isomerization!), you get erythorbic acid. It's a cheaper antioxidant that protects the dye from sun and oxygen damage.
Trisodium EDTA With its ability to bind heavy metals, EDTA is used to clean up after radioactive spills. That same talent is enlisted here to suck up copper in tap water, which might otherwise react with the product to create damaging radicals. Dyed hair is messed up enough already.
Polyquaterium-22 Sounds like a comic- book invention, but this common polymer coats each strand, smoothing the shaft's outer layer and improving lubricity — a fancy way of saying it's a hair conditioner.
p-Aminophenol, p-Phenylenediamine These so-called intermediates react inside the hair fiber to produce the appropriate color when oxidized. This combination turns dark brown. Other chemicals (or different proportions of these) can make any shade — from Sandy Blond to Jet Black.
Resorcinol Is there anything this stuff can't do? It's used as a chemical skin peel, a biological glue for aortic surgery, a sunscreen, a treatment for whooping cough, and — when mixed with the right acids — a TNT-like explosive. In Just for Men, it's a coupler, an additive that reacts with the oxidized intermediates to dial in the target color.
Hydrogen Peroxide When combined with the other ingredients, this ubiquitous denizen of the medicine cabinet provides a superabundance of highly reactive oxygen, which turns those intermediates and couplers into luxurious dark coloring that will surely fool everyone into thinking that this is your natural look.
The Gadget: Lego Egg Timer. The Price: $7.99 The Verdict: It's cute. It's makes a wonderful tic-tock noise. It helps you do roasted lamb and chicken and Beef Wellington and cakes. It's Lego. Really, it can't get any better than that. I only wish it could do more than one hour.
I bought the Lego Egg Timer while visiting Legoland in Denmark, at the end of my visit to the Lego factory. Since then I've used it many times and its design doesn't cease to entertain me. The top half of the mini-fig head rotates as it counts time, changing the expression as the minutes pass. Nothing else can be said about it, really, except that it's cute and it works great.
By the way, I will resume the chronicles of the Lego trip next week, after giving you a week of respite. Coming soon: an inside look at how the Lego bricks and sets are made, how they are designed from concept to final product, and what it's like to work there, among many other things. Stay tuned. [Lego]