Decisions are still made based on feeling
Windows Vista had been declared dead before it was even launched. The launch had already been postponed a few times, when Microsoft decided to launch the software in several countries at the same time. For the launch, they went looking for a special location. The Atomium in Brussels caught their eye. Renting one sphere in the Atomium for one day was a huge amount, even for a company like Microsoft a bitter pill. The location could only accommodate 200 people, so Microsoft had to be selective in sending out invitations.
In the end, the right people were not recruited and the launch was therefore much less successful than expected. They invited people purely on gut feeling, without using the power of big data. Microsoft's situation is far from unique. These kinds of challenges still occur. According to Dr. Mieke de Keleare, Customer Intelligence Lead South-West Europe at SAS, important france mobile phone number list decisions are still made on gut feeling.
De Ketelaere indicates that Data Driven Marketing is simply not yet in the DNA of marketers and that many organizations think that big data can only be applied to large B2C organizations. Nothing could be further from the truth. Big data can be made very small, down to the level of an individual customer. A team of 25 people is not needed. According to Ketelaere, you should just start applying data now and not wait three years until a profile is completely complete. Big data analytics is the ultimate tool for customer centric marketing. How well do you know your customers?