Large Data Age: building a comprehensive consumer interest map

The development of the marketing field over the past half century has let us witness the transition from "product-centric" to "customer-centric". The most popular marketing theory also shifted from "4P" to the "4C" theory of consumer demand-oriented and the "4R" theory oriented by relationship marketing. The digital information age under the domination of Internet and mobile Internet can help enterprises to collect users ' massive behavior data at an unprecedented speed, analyze, insight and forecast consumers ' preferences on the basis of large data, and provide consumers with the products, information and services that best meet their needs.

However, even in the large data age, each enterprise's understanding of their users can only be one-sided or a single dimension. For example, there are three websites: website A sells sportswear, the website B sells the casual attire, the website C sells the package, these three websites all understand the user to display in own website the preference, for instance to the color preference and to the price sensitivity, but they can not understand the user outside of own website behavior and the preference. If site A can understand the interests of its users on the Sites B and C (like purple casual clothes and bags), this is a very helpful message, and site A can use this more precisely to provide the user with sportswear that she might like. This not only enhances the website conversion rate, but also greatly improves the user experience. Building a comprehensive consumer interest map without infringing on user privacy will directly help all participating enterprises to improve their understanding of users and the competitiveness of their industries.

What is cloud marketing?

Cloud computing for the vast majority of readers is already not unfamiliar vocabulary, in short, refers to the calculation, service and application of integrated management. For example, Google, Amazon, IBM, such as professional network and technology companies have built a computer storage and computing centers, users through a network cable through the browser can be easily accessible, at any time online access to the required data, services and applications. Cloud computing and software services are gradually changing the way companies operate and manage their infrastructure. By outsourcing the enterprise's hardware and software infrastructure and related management work, organizations can reduce management costs while putting more time and energy into their day-to-day business work. At the same time, software service providers can use their entire time and resources to help businesses build the right, customized infrastructure. This outsourcing of infrastructure has both reduced management costs for businesses and created better infrastructure. So why not use this logic in marketing?

In fact, in this vast information network marketing environment, most enterprises do not have sufficient time, data and resources to do comprehensive marketing. At this time, you need a marketing information provider to assist enterprises to implement the relevant marketing activities. Some basic marketing campaigns are automated in ways that include content integration, automated e-mail services, and so on. Through this service, the benefit of the enterprise is faster, customized help and provider based on market research and brand management expertise, and the benefit of the provider is the comprehensive and adequate consumer preference information provided by the enterprise.

Combined with the traditional marketing and software service concept, cloud marketing is committed to integrating the marketing resources of various channels on the network so that all parties can create, revise, utilize and share these resources. From a channel perspective, providers or value-added service providers do not have the know-how and knowledge to manage these resources, which are managed by a third party responsible for maintaining the platform. In short, cloud marketing is a centralized management and application of consumer preference data and marketing data for multiple terminals. Cloud Marketing is not only the combination of traditional marketing and software service, but its essence is the integration and comprehensive utilization of marketing information across domains, across channels and terminals.

The advantages of cloud marketing

Compared with traditional marketing, cloud marketing has an absolute advantage in the following two aspects: one is to solve the problem of incomplete user preference (previously introduced), and the second is to solve the new user and the cold start of the product (cool start) problem. Cold start refers to the lack of historical accumulation of information, it is not possible to tap the problem of user preferences. Then the previous website example, when a new user enters the site A, we know nothing about this user, it is easy to lose this potential customer. And cloud marketing will be based on the user in the site B and C browsing trajectory or purchase behavior, tell the site a user may like what kind of goods. Similarly, when site A wants to launch a new sportswear, because there is no historical data, do not know which customers may like the new product, then if sent a request to the cloud, Third-party platform can be based on the site B and C user preferences, to tell the site a this new product to what kind of consumers.

Cloud Marketing Not only improves the information and utilization efficiency, but also reduces the marketing operation and management cost of the enterprise by the centralized management of the cloud, reduces the cost of acquiring new users, minimizes customer capital investment, and increases the potential customers and overall profits.

The latest application of cloud marketing

Data opening and resource sharing are the most dazzling features of the internet age. Some well-known Internet enterprises at home and abroad have already started to build a data platform based on cloud marketing. Google's adjustment to its user privacy policy at the beginning of this year has revealed a cloud-marketing concept that, under the new policy, will open up user information for multiple products and channels, from Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Map products such as user information will be able to spell out a more complete user preferences profile, through and centralized management of user preference information will enable Google's each product to provide users with a better user experience and more personalized service. A lot of internet giant companies, in the expansion of territory or acquisition process, has been involved in a number of areas, whether it is the United States Apple and Amazon, or China's Tencent and Baidu, for them, only the integration of their own companies or products of the user preference data, using the cloud model for data deployment and data access, Can really play the value of its data. Of course, for countless large and medium-sized companies, they do not have such a monopoly advantage, only through Third-party cloud marketing data platform companies, these companies in the data platform brings together a number of enterprises in different dimensions of user preferences, in an open and shared way to achieve efficient and low-cost data applications and services, Through the holding group to make full use of data resources, and the giant enterprises in some areas of competition.

At present, foreign exelate, Brilig, BlueKai and domestic percentile technology are turning cloud marketing concepts into reality, such as percentile technology, a company focused on personalized referral services by opening up consumers ' interest in multiple areas (shopping, information, etc.) Build a consumer's network of interests without infringing the user's privacy, and provide consumers with the products, information, and services that best meet their needs, directly helping all participating enterprises to improve their understanding of the user and industry competitiveness.