We Like Our Data Both Big and Small

Consumer behaviour and insights are pivotal for any brand to succeed in today’s hyper-dynamic world. All eyes are on the consumer’s attention.

As much as we might think otherwise, the consumer largely hasn’t changed: underlying motivations and behaviours at large have always remain constant. For example, in the 80s people would kill time on their train commute by reading newspapers, and now people simply use their smartphones instead. Similarly, social validation was always a thing. Earlier on, people would share printed copies of their travel photos, but now we simply hop onto Instagram.

These macro behaviours – the need to be entertained, socially validated, happy, with family – are still the same. However, the micro behaviours – consumption patterns of media, consumer goods, electronics, and so on – have drastically changed. Technology has changed the way we operate as well as the ecosystem in which we live and do business.

So now, more than ever, getting a complete grip on the finer consumer insights is the edge you need to keep your consumers engaged with your brand. After all, people have only 24 hours in a day, and there are more brands vying for their attention than ever before. A friend of mine once asked me, “do you know who Netflix’s biggest competition is?” to which I responded in a blink “Amazon Prime.”. He responded calmly, “Your sleep” (introspective silence at my end).

Big data, powered with small data is your ticket to unlocking the insights you need to make yourself visible to your consumers.

Enter Big Data

With big changes happening in the information infrastructure around us, companies providing market research and information services are changing too. Old methods of collecting information such as surveys are still relevant, but they only cover a part of the insight. Newer methods such as Big Data and Machine Learning are able to take that a step further and provide a lot more information but often lack context of the insight.

To begin, let’s get the terminology right. What is big data? Unstructured, high-volume, and primarily passive behavioural data in this case can be considered big data. Small data, on the other hand, refers to any kind of primary research (claim data) such as quantitative survey (online surveys, face-to-face surveys and so on), qualitative focus groups and even qualitative in-depth interviews.

There are big data companies out there that are good at what they do: analysing big, complex, unstructured databases or even extracting those data sets to analyse correlations or insights within them. But what these companies are unable to figure out is the insight behind the actual behaviour. There are also many research companies out there that are great at what they do, but whose analysis and research is primarily claimed by a set of respondents and not actual behavioural data.