The volume of customer data available to marketers is both a gift and a curse at the same time.

For the marketer, this has meant a proliferation in both the volume and type of data available on which to base marketing decisions. Not only has the online revolution allowed us to collect more attitudinal and psychographic data on consumers, ‘transactional’ data now reaches way beyond purchase/payment details to incorporate web and mobile activity. Furthermore, the volume of useable purchase data has also experienced a revolution with the growing success of loyalty programs. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly impossible to make a purchase WITHOUT your identifiable details in some way being captured.

However, to be confident in actioning the insight, marketers need reassurance that the underlying data is accurate, complete and most important of all, up-to-date. The availability and sophistication of data cleansing and integrity tools have certainly helped to build this confidence, but it is the ability to make real-time decisions based on data as it is received that is proving to be the biggest challenge to marketing in today’s digital world.

In something of a paradigm shift, some organizations that have previously spent millions of dollars on establishing and maintain a comprehensive ‘single customer view’ are now starting to think in terms of a ‘current customer view’ where only the current and relevant pieces of information required to make and execute a marketing decision are processed.  

In summary, the gift of data to the marketer is twofold. Firstly, significant growth in the breadth and depth of insightful and actionable information has empowered the marketer to make better informed decisions. Secondly, improvement to the accuracy and completeness of data has boosted the marketer’s confidence to make those decisions.

Paradoxically, the very same growth in actionable information is also a curse to the marketer. The overhead of managing increasing volumes of evermore complex data sets can paralyze the marketer’s ability to get to the right pieces of information in order to make the best decision. Today’s successful marketer will therefore need to be data-savvy enough to know which pieces of data are needed, from where and at what time in order to make the best possible marketing decisions.

Dave Audley is Director of Consulting & Analytics at Experian Asia Pacific.