The biggest fallacy of the big Data age: not to treat consumers like people!

The marketing department of the big companies is buzzing with rumours about new hires. The candidate is not a computer expert, a math geek, or a big data expert. For these people, the consumer is no more than tens of thousands of "0" and "1"; the collection, analysis, and orientation of all purchase behaviors on the network are based on these binary data. But these companies may be forgetting that consumers are people too.

The famous chocolate maker Ferrero recently learned a lesson from its hardcore fan, Sala Rosso (Sara Rosso). She is the company's brand Nutella hazelnut sauce enthusiasts, in 2007, created the annual "Global can benefit day." Russell's "Hazelnut Sauce Feast" is held every year in mid-February, with more than 40,000 fans calling the event "awesome" on Facebook. But Ferrero has taken a negative attitude towards the public affair. The company even commissioned a lawyer to send a stop-and-desist order, ordering Ms. Russell to stop celebrating the event. Cease-and-desist

Naturally, Russell published a blog to open the content of the termination order, attracted the media to cover the story. The more beneficial fans expressed strong dissatisfaction through social media, and they did not understand why the company would oppose the celebrations.

A few years ago, I was at the other end of the game. At the time, my 8-year-old son, Harry, sent a picture of a plane to Boeing, wondering whether Boeing could produce the plane in the picture. Later, we received a similar letter warning Harry to stop using Boeing's trademark in the painting.

I write a blog about this. Published in 2010, the topic is "is your customer service department ready to meet the ' open New World '" and to express my dilemma: I should confess to harry the contents of the letter and tell him the ruthlessness of the company's communication system; Or do you lie to him that we have not received any letter from Boeing, hoping that he will continue to remain childlike and unrestrained in his creativity?

Who had thought that the story spread to hundreds of blogs and magazines; ABC even reported it. Boeing wanted to calm the storm, so the communications director, Tode Bell Todd Belcher, contacted Harry himself. After several conversations, Boeing decided to invite our family to the assembly plant in Seattle to see how the aircraft was made. This journey, which Harry had never forgotten, will encourage him to continue to be creative.

Todd's approach is not just for my son. After realizing that Harry was just a kid with a passion for airplanes, Todd's response turned a potential PR crisis into a positive case and reversed the company's response to public voice.

And Boeing is not the exception; now companies need to think about how to balance the company's intellectual-property controls and the desire of fans to approach big companies. In this era of communication democratization, fans want to announce their love for the brand through electronic media.

The Metallica band sued 30,000 fans in 2000, accusing them of illegally downloading their music from Napster. Mattel has also Mattel with consumers on the grounds that they have created different versions of Barbie dolls. FedEx even forced Hose Avila (Jose Ávila) to close its website, based on the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act" (DMCA), as he displayed his own furniture in FedEx cartons.

Any brand with a follower will have to deal with the problem that is unique to the digital age, whether it is willing or not.

More and more digital companies are equipped with advanced market analysis tools, and their ability to predict consumer behavior is more accurate than consumers themselves. At the same time, they need to become more humane. The transformation of the original communication model is imminent; the brand needs not only to communicate with fans, but also to rethink the meaning of "trademark ownership". Brands should be able to be shared by companies, consumer organizations, fans and followers.

With the popularization of new market analysis tools and systems, the company needs more humane marketing system to balance. Communicating with users like Sarah and Harry from a human perspective, the company can quickly create positive momentum and eliminate negative effects. This makes the interaction between people more important than ever before.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)