Robert P. Waters, Author
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Neuro-Marketing: paving the ocean

2/22/2015

 
Not many of us would want a job requirement that included, “Pave the Ocean”.  After reading a white paper about the evolving realm of marketing analytics by a respected technology firm, the thought crossed my mind: They are being set-up for a lot of paving.  

The white paper defined marketing’s evolving scope of pursuit:

“We must gain a 360-degree view of each customer by tapping into relevant information about every interaction they have with our brand—whether online or offline, from their smartphone, wearables, in-store visit or anywhere in between. We must analyze that data to understand who each customer is and what she wants..to make these experiences far more individualized, personalized, and customized”.

The white paper presented an enterprise-level strategy to know everything about every customer. Seriously? Data, integrated systems, partners, new processes - all the stuff defining customer focused enterprises - could be bought through the firm presenting the paper. Last year, another Fortune100 tech firm stated via an ad on the WSJ that “80% of data psychologist jobs went unfilled in 2014”. Another firm reported that 20% of all customer data is inaccurate.

Let’s compare the relative assumptions. A 360-degree view of customers requires data, against the goal: improved accuracy on measurable revenue per marketing campaign. Better marketing. Shouldn't we ask the CMO, “Why have you made the assumption that customers want to be known so deeply?” This is not marketing; it is profiling; otherwise you wouldn’t need big data. You would actually need sales people and more; highly intelligent, trained, business-experienced sales people. They would understand needs and expectations from a less-expansive customer population willing to share their lifecycle use of a product and present valuable insights. Great marketing doesn't need to know everything about everyone.  If you can’t keep up with every customer on phones, tablets, wearables and other digital devices – you cannot have a 360-degree organization – at best, move the decimal left acknowledging actual 36.0-degree marketing.  You can’t pave the ocean. Most of us don't want to be profiled after buying a pair of shoes or cup of coffee.

Big data, psycho-analytics, psychometrics, cloud data sharing, AI tracking apps on phones and wearable technology – sure prepares for an ocean load of paper and reports.

RPW

dashboard for happiness

2/17/2015

 
[ In ‘People Analytics,’ You’re Not a Human, You’re a Data Point ] by Christopher Mims

I'm referencing today’s February 2015 headline in the WSJ that didn’t require reading.  Although I’m not a paid subscriber I could read two greyed-out sentences telling me what the article was describing: company profiling of employees. The issue is one I have tracked since the start of The Great Recession, 2008.

Big Data is not at issue when profiling humans. Facebook and LinkedIn and Twitter are not suspect either, causing dehumanization. Too many personal records are available for business to seek access to such as credit scores, criminal records, tax and property ownership and past employment data. Still, these data troves don’t dehumanize us. Let’s look at one sentence for more insight:

“Instead of finding out what’s going on in her company by asking her subordinates, she (a top executive) consults a digital dashboard that tells her everything from who is at their desk to how happy they are about it.”

This is solely related to behavioral psychology in the workforce. Without any more need to prove advancing trends in behavioral sciences, if you haven’t picked up on the past years hiring trends admitting “brain functions” – you soon will. Just seek a job or promotion and you’ll be subjected to tests about your thoughts and feelings and perceptions of work, people, disruptive innovation, the future, entrepreneurism and much deeper behavioral realms hidden in your private self.

Let me get right to the issue: employers (HR) have been targeted by software firms that take research from human behavioral psychology and neurology theory. The research data comes by way of university psych departments; the data is re-purposed in custom software then packaged, marketed and sold to business. The pitch is one of predictability. The workforce must be profiled, they say, in order to build-in predictability. It’s only theory but, science+data leads to absolutes.  Absolute what? People, workers, employees, job applicants – whatever label is given – firms have bought into behavioral sciences which cannot, by nature, allow past experiences and skills to prove value to an employer. Why? Those are past – not future values. Here is the fundamental new cultural hiring norm: to predict human thinking processes as metrics. We are becoming the software-selected workforce. Happiness tested.

The real value in older employees: wisdom

2/10/2015

 
Every year the lines of anxious consumers grow longer on the eve of Apple’s introducing its new iPhone.  Media outlets roll the camera’s, the internet provides countdown clocks, students skip classes, technology websites burn bandwidth explaining how the new version will change the world, change the way we interact, change for the better.

Then there’s Version56. On such an extended version roadmap one may assume the product carried several years of sales success – to the point of being worth the time and cost to keep it in production. It went from Version 1.0 to v56.  New features were added annually to the product to make life better and efficient and, importantly – empowered with knowledge.   

But with all the spheres of social media chattering it up about the latest technology upgrade, Version56 got downgraded. Truthfully, Version56 got mothballed back around v45 but it held on for a few years. What is this Version56? It is me: Age 56. Baby Boomer. Educated. Experienced. A learner. Been up through the ranks, had promotions, knows the “system”.  Thinks about customers.

The Ford Mustang has been in production since 1964. Pushing beyond age 50, a new version rolled off assembly lines every year since ’64 and today the Mustang is still hot.  Even the slender, sexy female models advertisers used to attract customers back then have led to the new slender, sexy female models in 2015. 

What about Version56? Still learning, still adapting, still thinking. It is the business culture, more precisely – the corporate America culture – that rejects the value of the person with advanced maturity and skills. By analogy of the automobile, the new culture wants an electric car, talking GPS, full-screen digital feedback social media center on wheels. It demands electric stations at fast-food restaurants and Whole Foods parking lots. The automobile is about two environments: the compartment experience and the eco-environment; both needing to be cleaner than last year’s version.  The Version56 employee, however, still drives excitement.  He or she isn’t predicting the future but is focused on “how to” make what is currently in production better for today. Version56 takes a set of known data and advises business to adapt to the times – not to year 2050. He’s not a data psychologist dreamer but rather, an engaged producer of ideas with that same old tired focus: Customers.

Culture2015 is about knowing customers so deeply that companies will drop millions of dollars on demographic profiling tools to gather data – overwhelming data. Human Resources is now just as much enthralled with the trends in pop-human behaviors of employees.  My question needs answering: why is the HR office driving software founded upon behavioral psychology and psychometrics? Employees and customers are but data metrics. HR officers believe the wheels in your brain turn the rotors of your personality – the assessment software is more tuned to predicting your personality [metrics] value than understanding skills awaiting potential greatness. Here is the beginning of a future software selected workforce. But the wise know better.

Robert Waters

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