CHAPTER 10

SKILL #2:

DON’T BE LURED BY BRIGHT, SHINY OBJECTS

A company shouldn’t get addicted to being shiny, because shiny doesn’t last.

—JEFF BEZOS, founder, Amazon.com

Big Data is the hot new buzz term. You hear it everywhere in the marketing world. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Big Data; the problem is not how much data is available, it’s how it is used.

CASE IN POINT

THE PROBLEM WITH BIG DATA

Understanding what drives people lets you tap into their emotions, which in turn lets you know whether or not you will connect with them. Many conventional marketers don’t ask those questions. They assume they already have the answers in the Big Data that comes in their market research.

Marketers and advertisers chase the big shiny object because it makes them appear relevant. Yet in their quest for relevance, they forget that the goal is to achieve an ongoing customer relationship, not a momentary trophy. That’s why I asked my future wife what she liked doing. Jobs come and go. If you choose a person based on a job title, where does that leave you when that job no longer exists? A better reason to choose to be with someone long term is that person’s character, which remains regardless of job title. The same is true of all our other connections.

That objective is sometimes difficult to achieve in a world in which it often seems power is ceded to the extroverts who chase the shiny trophies. Instead, we should be following the introverts—the quiet creatives and data philosophers who understand how to turn insights into action.

I tried a little experiment while writing this (that’s what automation allows), and found that the term Big Data was mentioned on social media 955,578 times between April 1 and July 1, 2015.

That’s only three months! If that rate holds, in one year the number of references to the term will reach around 3 million—and that’s just on social media. Add the other analog and digital sources where it might appear and the number probably increases three or four times.

THE VALUE OF BIG DATA

Steve Goldner is an avid blogger on the topic of social media. Residing in my old stomping ground of Maplewood and South Orange, New Jersey, Goldner goes by the alias “Social Steve” on both Twitter and his Wordpress blog. He is one of the most outspoken critics on the subject of marketing talent in this transformational era.

“I think the biggest issue that we have in the world of marketing right now and possibly why we’re seeing a lift in disruptive marketing is because it’s creatively tied to data,” says Goldner. “A lot of younger marketers can’t relate marketing to executive KPIs [key performance indicators]. Then you have a lot of the older marketers who haven’t stayed up on the new trends and tactics. This is not a skill many people have. I bet the majority of them will be reading this book.” Even the term Big Data puts the emphasis on data collection as the bright, shiny object. Big Data sometimes emphasizes the wrong things, though. For example, the emphasis on collection for collection’s sake is misguided. The emphasis from a marketing perspective should really be on data-driven insights or a new term just starting to crop up in marketing circles, Insights-as-a-Service (IAAS).

Capgemini, a French consulting technology corporation, defines IAAS as deriving value from data. And isn’t that the point of collecting it in the first place? Yet, the goal in the world of Big Data shouldn’t be to collect data. That’s an action. The goal is to use the data to derive strategic insights from its analysis.

Most conventional marketers have gotten stuck on the act of collecting Big Data, when what they really need are the insights within these mountains of data. Tanner Christensen, product designer at Facebook and author of The Creativity Challenge: Design, Experiment, Test, Innovate, Build, Create, Inspire, and Unleash Your Genius, thinks Big Data causes us to forget about what and who is within those mountains.

People are far more interesting and complex than a set of data, but really aren’t we all just bits of data anyway? The difference, I think, is in how we frame the pursuit of that data and what it means. Information that we pull from a database can be immensely helpful for design or creativity—in that it can help us identify trends, spot outliers, and make informed decisions. However, information we associate with behavior and intent is vastly more impactful. Precisely because it gives us a better way of interpreting the data.

Looking at data strictly from a “data” perspective is limiting. Add on the reasons the data exists in the first place, the influences on it, etc. and you’ve got something you can actually influence and learn from. Mining data from a database is great for shining general trends or insights, but unless you get down into the reasoning for what caused that data to begin with, “Was someone having a bad day? Are there cultural trends at play? Was something misleading or confusing? What were the intents behind the data?” you’ll be blind to much of what influences your work.

THE END OF MARKETING AS USUAL

If we remove the shiny Big Data label, we are left with conventional marketing and conformist tactics. And if we are rebelling against this thinking, then we are also rebelling against HIPPOs. No, not the animal, but the acronym for Highly Paid Personal Opinions. We know based on design learning that the person with the highest salary or biggest title doesn’t necessarily make the best business decisions—especially since tenure means little and everyone has access to an abundance of data at his or her fingertips.

HIPPOs may also be the reason big, shiny, sparkly things exist in the business world in the first place. If your bonus is tied to these metrics, then you’re going to move the business toward achieving them, even if they have little impact on business. The C-suite and high-level executives may dislike me for saying this, but you won’t make progress unless you foster debate.

I write and speak a lot about data-driven decisions mixed with creative solutions, and I think there is no single best way to do it. If you make only data-driven decisions, you’ll lack creative execution. And if you make only creative decisions, you’re ignoring the data you need to measure the impact of your strategy to determine if it’s working. To me, the perfect business world is one in which smart creatives are 50/50 analytical/creative hybrid thinkers. Data is a flashlight; creativity is a key used to unlock opportunities. This goes for all industries, from engineering to medicine, film production to education, and everything in between.

The Future of Data in Decision Making

So, how will data be used in the future to reassess the decision-making hierarchy? I spent much of August 2015 in Brooklyn, New York, working on this book. As part of my research, I met with many old acquaintances who are working in a variety of industries. I wanted to ask them who the decision makers are in their fields. One question I asked each of them was, “Is there a strict work hierarchy or do you have an agile meritocracy where you work?” If they answered “a hierarchy,” I followed up with, “Does this hierarchy hinder really unleashing the power of marketing in a customer-focused manner?”

More than half of those I asked responded with something like, “Geoff, the situation is terrible. There are a bunch of people with big titles, bigger salaries, and corner offices telling everyone what to do based solely on their opinion or gut-level feelings.” The idea of customer focus at their workplace was simply given lip service.

Clearly, this isn’t the case everywhere, but of the twenty people I asked, more than half answered this way. In such cases, the hierarchical structure of organization charts—status quo reporting and layered job roles—prevents disruptive ideas from ever finding a place to be tested. The good news for disruptive marketers (and the bad news for those clinging to conventional organization charts) is that we won’t be living in this world much longer.

Tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and a slew of startups are dismantling their organization charts. Very soon, data will determine how great an impact a person makes at work. It will also help people make quick pivots to correct real-time missteps. When this changeover happens, many will rejoice, because they can ride the wave of adjusting solutions based not on conjecture, bias, or defined roles, but on data. People all over the world are rejecting defined roles when it comes to gender, race, and class, so why should we bind ourselves to outmoded definitions of how we do our work? HIPPOs and the hierarchical model may actually be hurting companies. While I don’t mean this as an attack on experience, I do agree with the statement (of uncertain origin, but often assigned to W. Edwards Deming) that “without data you’re just another person with an opinion.” Data scares the opinionated conventional marketing managers. Their approach to making strategic decisions is an “I know a good marketing plan when I see it” strategy. Why? “Because I have twenty years of experience knowing when a marketing plan is good!”

Any job requires a mix of skills, from thinking to collaborating, to creating, to doing. In the future, more and more of the doing will be done by software rather than by people. There’s nothing wrong with this; in our creative economy, automation will free up more time for us to do other things. What many seem to miss when they chase those bright, shiny objects are the essentials of good marketing: collaborating with others, formulating ideas, and bringing those ideas to fruition.

The Coming Shape of Marketing

A very opinionated colleague at Microsoft loves to discuss the field of marketing. He is good at balancing the yin and yang—of teaming the most radical in the field (including me) with the most conservative (names withheld to protect the innocent). Matthew Woodget is a senior product marketer and storyteller for Microsoft Business Solutions. At one time he was an engineer.

Matthew is the best example of an outsider looking in and reshaping marketing. Matthew and I get into conversations—usually over a beer at the Microsoft campus pub—that, if it’s a sunny summer day in Seattle, can sometimes go on forever. His views are informative on the subject of chasing bright, shiny objects versus looking for a harmonious balance, and for recalibrating objectives by constantly identifying opportunities through Big Data:

As with all things in life, balance is key. No doubt technology has and will continue to enhance how marketing is targeted and delivered. The content, however, will continue to require the human touch; that is, unless you plan on having your marketing target robots. . . . Until that day comes, humans will need to experience a sense of connection and purpose with the companies that they interact with.

Something that all the machine learning and artificial intelligence in the world can’t do yet is [tell stories]. The ability to synthesize a multitude of concepts, generate new ideas [and] metaphors, and predict how others feel (what neuroscientists call “theory of mind”) are all uniquely human qualities. It is through these and other capabilities . . . that we are able to create . . . content that connects with other humans. . . . How we reach those humans personally and at scale (call it “Personal at Scale”) is where the magic happens. It is [also] where we can rely on algorithms and the rock star data scientists to reach the right people in an agile, nimble way.

Matthew paused, and added, “As with many industries, much of the skill set eventually gets automated and we are pushed further and further to the realms of the idea economy. [However,] the uniquely human quality of creativity . . . will be commoditized last, if ever.”

Story making is still a huge part of the skill set that cannot (at least not yet) be taken away from the human marketer. So, while many talking about disruption are going to continue to talk about Big Data as marketing’s savior, creativity still reigns. Matthew finished his pint before getting to his final thought—the one that makes him one of the top marketers at Microsoft:

We must use all tools at our disposal. I often like to give direct mail [marketing] a hard time. Yet in some cases it still serves a purpose. If new technology teaches us anything, it’s how to use the old technology in a relevant way. When new technology bursts onto the scene, it’s always characterized as the solution to world hunger. Then reality sets in. This is a good thing. It means we end up using the right tools for the right job. And sometimes a phone call makes all the difference in an authentic relationship.

For someone to act on what we land with them we must engage with them. To engage with them we must be relevant. To be relevant we must be authentic, and share the authentic voice of our existing customers. Those things together unlock trust. It’s a lack of respect [for] these innately human qualities that leads so many companies [astray], whether it is using Twitter as another dumb broadcast channel, spamming people with email, or robocalls. You can’t automate trust.

THE MISSING LINK: QUALITY

Although Big Data helps us target customers using push methods, it’s important to remember that bright, shiny objects usually lose their luster over time. You can have the greatest data in the world, but if you don’t have a good product or a good company culture, you’re going to have a hard time going forward.

Among the things you need to ensure longevity is the right people filling the marketing functions—people with the right DNA and the right cultural fit.

How to Find Quality People

You ask questions, just as I did of my wife on that night we met. You stop asking about skills. You stop asking about an Ivy League education. And you stop asking about job titles. Instead, you are inquisitive, you use your emotional intelligence, and you start asking prospective staff about what motivates them, what they enjoy doing.

The problem most organizations have with moving toward a disruptive marketing mindset is that their marketing departments comprise marketers who have:

Advanced degrees, such as MBAs

Economic, creative, or artistic backgrounds

Traditional mindsets when looking for growth solutions

Such people:

Make decisions based on guesswork and hierarchy.

Create one-way, controlling communications aimed at awareness.

Employ a tired value proposition to make prospective customers want to use the product, solution, or service.

Instead, organizations should seek, and you should try, to move toward:

Data geeks with the souls of artists who have the business acumen of a Sheryl Sandberg and the storytelling skills of a Don Draper.

Highly collaborative people who don’t sit in a silo and can break down walls to be part of design-thinking, design- oriented teams.

Analyzers of data who:

Build interactive experiences with the audience.

Possess a high emotional IQ and empathy.

Have walked in the shoes of others and, therefore, can help create solutions and products that people want to use, not market products people couldn’t care less about.

People who live the culture of the company by setting the culture of the company.

People who don’t wait for the CMO to give them direction and who don’t like top-down hierarchies. They are part of the company’s hive mind (collective consciousness).

Many companies are lucky enough to find these candidates; when they do, the battle is on to retain them.*

* Unfortunately, some of these candidates are unable to translate data into executive performance indicators, which should always be a requirement.