Chapter 4: Data-Driven Marketing Decisions and Strategies: Bright Sides and Dark Sides

The advancement in information technology and the internet has changed the landscape of marketing, consumer buying behaviour, companies marketing decisions and strategies. Mass marketing has lost its relevance. Businesses and marketers are emphasising on using customer and marketing data for planning and decision-making, leading to the growing popularity of data-driven marketing (DDM) decisions and strategies. The wide-spread adoption of DDM decisions and strategies have changed the rules of segmenting, targeting and positioning. Today companies are using advanced tools and technologies to gather, analyse and control customer information on behaviour, taste and preferences. Thus, the DDM decisions and strategies are helping business leaders and marketers to create personalised marketing and customer engagement, customer retention and revenue generation. This chapter explores the scope of DDM decisions and strategies and its bright sides and dark sides. The major objective of this study is to offer insights and a framework for business leaders and marketers, which will enable them to identify prevailing trends, help them to craft effective communication and marketing strategies for their target customers. In addition to this, companies can do the monitoring of website traffic, sales conversions and social media engagement to measure the effect of their promotional activities. Moreover, different metrics will support them to identify the attractive segments and effective marketing channels to leverage their marketing efforts.