Can working with data be exciting? Creative? Why not? In fact, in this age of greater targeting and marketing accountability, creative approaches are now mandated. But being creative with data has little value unless one uses it to be creative in finding data solutions. With this kind of creativity, you naturally will consider many data solutions in advance of meeting with both data owners and data end-users, but many ideas will come during meetings while listening to their issues and concerns. You have to know data….love data….to be creative like this. And this type of extemporaneous problem solving is almost a daily occurrence in emerging markets where data sourcing alone can be an adventure.

But working within an environment where data is both plentiful and segmented still leaves room for creativity. Creating niche databases within databases, betting on inferences to expand data profiles where volumes are insufficient, and "listening" to the data are all necessary steps now in markets like the U.S. and EU. Sometimes a detailed data profile will tell you something that your internal biases reject. The creative solution is to "listen" to the profile and "hear" what it has to say. Then give it a chance to prove itself. We had a client in the women's apparel sector. Specifically Teens/Young Women's apparel. While the merchandise was geared to the Youth segment, the profile analysis suggested that the customer was a more upscale woman, 40-50 years old. Sounds weird, I know. The store was filled with clothing that would appeal to a teeny-bopper or early 20-something. Was it the mothers buying clothes for their daughters? I double-checked to make sure the analysis was done properly. Satisfied that it was, I decided that the next step was to do a study among store managers. Surprise. The managers described their customers as women in their 40-50's. With this profile confirmation, we submitted the report. The client was more than a bit annoyed that we could even suggest such a customer description. Describing our research methoolgy, we managed to convince them to test the results. Long story short, two months later the client decided to roll-out to a full-scale promotion, targeting the older female demographic.

Read entire article featured in April's (UK) Direct Marketing International magazine (DMI-News)