How to achieve better marketing and market research with Big Data
Technological progress today allows us to enjoy excellent living conditions. Control of space, control of reproduction, control of information are challenges that we have already accomplished. However, time control remains out of reach. Many human obsessions revolve around the power of this resource, offered to us at birth in a desperately finite quantity: time. Staying young, living old, perpetuating your memory, predicting the future are some of the forms that this obsession takes. This refusal of...
Will Big Data have the skin of market research?
In an article in 2015 (which I hadn’t translated in English at that time), I was asking myself about the future of the market research sector. Big Data, I foresaw, could well be the death of market research institutes as we know them today. And it has to be said that the future has proven me right. On the one hand, traditional institutes are attacked by technological start-ups that are totally outside the scope of market...
Market research combines Big Data and qualitative techniques .. 120 years ago
Visualizing data has become a standard task and one essential component of data science today. But, haven’t we forgotten how lucky we are to have all that data available and to be able to use it for various purposes ? An early example of Big Data and visualisation project One of the most stunning visualization projects I’ve come to know was initiated more than a century ago by Charles Booth, a Liverpool-born businessman who became...
Combining ethnography and Big Data in market research : a real example
Qualitative research techniques have inherently an ethnographic background that many market research firms tend to ignore. Qualitative techniques are there to help researchers discover what’s going on and build their assumptions. This is exactly what we tried to do when we visited the N5 winebar last month too prepare the launch of the franchise. Observation as a qualitative market research technique The first step we undertook was to spend 3 full days in Toulouse to understand...
Make big data and algorithms part of the public service media eduction plan
On 6 October 2017 I was invited by the Eurovision Academy to give a speech at their General Assembly in Vilnius (Lithuania). The Eurovision Academy is the department, within the European Broadcasting Union, that is responsible for training employees from membres (public service media) and making sure all of them have the opportunity to keep up to date with the latest techniques in terms of employee development. They do a terrific job and have helped introduced some very...
How Big Data will influence the future of advertising
“What is the impact of Big Data on online advertising” is the question I was asked to answer on the occasion of an EGTA ((European Group of Television Advertising) workshop that took place on 29 and 30 June 2017 in Brussels (my thanks to Yuri Loburets for his kind invitation to speak). Rather than repeating the same clichés about Big Data again and again I chose to put advertising and Big Data back in a historical perspective....
Big Data and ethics : how visualization can screw it up
Following our first article on the Big Data and Ethics meetup organized at Digityser on 15 June 2017, we’d like to cover today another very interesting presentation by Leenke De Donder. Lenke dealt with an aspect the importance of which is, in our opinion, underestimated by data scientists and professionals in the data business : visualization. We spend a lot of time on collecting data, cleansing (data quality) and designing the most efficient algorithms. Yet, do...
Big Data and Ethics : first sucessful meetup at DigitYser in Brussels
On 15 June 2017 my friend Philippe Van Impe gave me the opportunity to organize the first meetup in his newly opened Big Data temple in Brussels : DigitYser. And what a success ! The topic of this first Meetup at DigitYser was “Big Data and ethics“, an important topic in data science yet insufficiently covered. The idea for this meetup popped up during my talk at the Data Innovation Summit where people started tweeting about...
Can Big Data become a technique to promote transparency and equity
On this blog I often took a pessimistic look at Big Data, asking for a revolution in how firms build and use their algorithms. I called for instance for opening up the models behind recommendation algorithms and wondered whether our freedom was at stake. Today’s article will be definitely more optimistic because I met last week at the CPDP 2017 conference two speakers that delivered brilliant presentations on how Big Data can actually become a tool...
Customer satisfaction, customer experience and big data
Improving customer experience is priority #1 of top executives for the next 12 months (Lemon and Verhoef 2016). At the same time Big Data is on every serious company’s agenda. How can Big Data contribute to creating a customer experience that will ensure customer retention ? This is the topic of today’s article where we will question the usefulness of Big Data in today’s digital sphere (yes ! we’ll dare doing that !). What is customer...
The role of Big Data on society : EBU conference
With fellow colleagues of EBU, I organized last week a conference entitled “Big Data and Society“at RTBF, the French-speaking public broadcasting organization of Belgium. As I wrote on EBU website, this event aimed at gathering together professionals from the broadcasting industry to reflect on the impact of Big Data, recommendation algorithms and filter bubbles on society in general, and on users’ behaviors in particular. We assembled an amazing panel of 8 speakers from 5 countries who shared...
Big Data : 4 types of filter bubbles
The question of the existence of filter bubbles (also called cognitive bubbles) is central to the fields of Big Data and algorithm design. Among different books, I was very much influenced by the Dominique Cardon’s book on algorithms and society. In this book entitled “What are algorithms dreaming of ?” Cardon proposes a framework based on four types of web measurements, each resting on a specified data type (see summary table below). Examples Data Population...
Big Data and Ethics : how recommendations work at Meetup.com
There have been many interesting talks at the RecSys 2016 conference in Boston. Yet, the presentation given by Evan Estola of Meetup was especially inspiring to me. It wasn’t the regular technical speech you may expect in that kind of conference (although Evan is himself a rather technical guy); rather it gave the audience a perspective and a vision on how ethics and Big Data can (and need to) be combined. Evan started by giving examples...
Big Data : why ethics issues need to be addressed urgently
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly present in our daily lives : speech recognition, automatic translation, personal assistants, chatbots, recommendation algorithms. These technological advances are also subject to criticism and questions on ethics. What happens with our data, will algorithms govern us, what about the concept of freedom ? There is work to be done to teach people the positive and negative sides of AI and even more work to make them conscious about alternatives. Is this a...
Big Data: let your customers improve your segmentation
Companies are keen on obtaining as much data as possible on their customers to improve behavioral profiling. Yet, few companies harness the power of their customers to enrich their data with new types of data, allowing new segments to be created. In today’s article we’d like give you two examples of how online journals are using their customers to categorize their articles differently and improve recommendations. Like and dislike: the most basic type of segmentation Like...
Big Data can save lives
At the conference organized together by Microsoft Europe and Louvain University, Adeline Decuyper proposed a fresh look at Big Data. She rightly made the point that Big Data can also serve non commercial purposes and contribute to Greater Good. She gave some amazing examples of how cell phone data can be used in a variety of settings to improve the lives of millions of people and even save lives. Big Data applied to mobility issues She...
Big Data : what are the trends in the retail and insurance sectors ?
In partnership with Microsoft Europe (Brussels), the University of Louvain (Belgium) organized a conference on 13 May where I discussed the future impact of Big Data in the retail and insurance sectors. I started by outlining the 4 sectors that are heavy data producers and users : banking, insurance, retail and telecom. I showed that Big Data is used for only two purposes in these sectors : reduce costs or generate revenues. I then moved on...
Service quality : the next retail challenge after Big Data
Algorithms have become instrumental in retailers’ strategies to increase loyalty among customers. We don’t know of any major retailer not having a Big Data team working on a.o. predicting churn, couponning, increasing loyalty, new segmentation, … Yet, what we also notice is that all retailers more or less all use the same tools, the same techniques for the same goals. It’s all about Spark, Hadoop, real-time processing and it’s true that technological progresses will certainly represent...
Big Data : 4 points to understand your legal responsibilities
I recently attended a workshop on the legal aspects of Big Data and IoT (Internet of Things) that was organized by Impulse in Brussels. The presenter, Philippe Laurent, had a very clever and clear way of presenting the problems posed by Big Data and I thought it might be interesting to share his presentation and conclusions with you. In particular he proposed a 4-category framework that is easy to understand and will give you essential guidance...
Facebook case: towards more Big Data transparency ?
No later than Monday we were announcing the next Big Data revolution : algorithms will become more transparent in the future. We argued consumers will become increasingly aware of how sensitive their data is, eventually demanding information on how it is used and Big Data transparency. On Monday evening (08 Feb 2016) the French data protection authority (CNIL) together with the fraud authorities (DGCCRF) confirmed that trend. They listed a series of infringements and demanded that...
Big Data : here’s the next revolution
This is the beginning of the next Big Data revolution. However it remained confidential. A bill was passed in France mid-January that will force the fiscal authorities to reveal the variables in algorithms used to take individual decisions (article in French). In other words, if you are picked up to get your tax declarations scrutinized, the fiscal authorities will have to reveal how you were picked up. Big Data: when ethics comes into play Until now...
Big Data becomes Art at MoMa
Visualizing and making sense of big data is in itself a difficult exercise. Successful attempts have been reported on this blog (for instance Jacques Levy’s geographical maps). Visualization can sometimes be so stunning that it can become a piece of Art. Columbia researchers Laura Kurgan, Eric Cadora, David Reinfurt and Sarah Williams processed data from the US department of Justice and reveal visually some stunning results about incarcerated people. Presentation of the research project In a...
Big Data: why couldn’t you sell your data?
This may seem like a silly idea but here it is. Wouldn’t it be better to pay users for their data rather than stealing it from them and discussing issues of data quality afterwards? (see our other articles on Big Data here) Disruptive business model needed in Big Data Big Data and Data Mining have been operated rather homogenously since the beginning. It consists in either “stealing” data from the consumer (data captation at every touchpoint)...
Big Data : Belgian website Realo displays social profile of neighborhood
The news made a big buzz on 17 June in Belgium. Big Data based website Realo.com unleashed sudden polemic after months of existence (see for instance this article in French). Their mapping of real estate properties displayed not only properties for sale, but also social indicators like revenue levels, education and unemployment levels and the percentage of foreigners. Contact us for our B2B studies Why did the polemic start The polemic started after the Interfederal Centre...
Big Data: TAM Airlines creates unique customer experience
Let’s stick with our new habit of having a shorter Friday post. Thanks to our good friends at Creapills, we learned about the initiative of TAM Airlines leveraging Big Data and Data Analytics to increase passengers’ satisfaction. TAM Airlines used a Facebook Connect to get personal information on its passengers. For those of you who don’t know what a Facebook Connect is, it’s a popup that enables a website to capture data from your Facebook account...
Rethinking the customer experience in museums with (Big) data
How can Big Data help museums reinvent themselves? How can data collection techniques be used to understand visitors better? How can data be used to build visitor loyalty? In this article, we propose a series of reflections on current and future museographic devices and on “data” initiatives that can be put in place to improve the customer experience and increase visitor loyalty. Summary Introduction Museums in the Age of Big Data For better exploitation of digital traces Conclusion Sources Introduction...
Vitality offers Apple watch to monitor your activity : one more insurance into big (health) data
A few weeks ago we were discussing on this blog the trend of the insurance market to collect very intrusive data. I had the opportunity to raise my concerns at several conferences and got the impression that people were not aware of what was going on (especially as far as car insurances are concerned). In particular I gave the example of CSS Insurance in Switzerland which proposed customers to wear a fit band capturing activity data...
Opendatasoft: the all-in-one platform for open data
In today’s podcast, we are pleased to welcome Jean-Marc Lazard, co-founder of Opendatasoft. Opendatasoft is an all-in-one data platform that aims to democratize access to and use of data. Today, the solution is used in 25 countries, underpins more than 2000 data platforms, and is marketed to nearly 300 customers. The challenge facing Opendatasoft is a big one. Indeed, the world of data leads to regularly evolving its solution to serve many users. Only for our subscribers:...
4 Biggest Challenges Employees Face While Working Remotely
Working from bed and staying in pajamas all day felt like a dream come true when the pandemic started. However, we started missing our old desks and small talks in the office. Here is a list of the most common challenges remote workers face and some advice on how to tackle them. 1. Taking care of mental health A dramatic change to a new environment and new working arrangments can have significant impact on people’s...
The 11 challenges of data preparation and data wrangling
The events of 2020 have accelerated the shift to telecommuting and digital relationships. With digitalization, another transformation is also underway: the analytics transformation. To face this data revolution, I find that businesses do not necessarily have the right tools for preparing and analyzing data (data preparation or data wrangling). In this article, I wanted to put into perspective the role of these tools in the functioning of the business. In particular, I think they can contribute to efficiency...
Data Mining: Definitions, 5 Free Tools, and Techniques
After the collection and preparation process, data analysis is necessary to find meaning in a data set. Looking at a page of data does very little for building models of customer behavior, so we need an intelligent way (data mining) to sift through information. By using statistics-based approaches and algorithms, we can start to mine data. Only for our subscribers: exclusive analyses and marketing advice Email address * Subscribe By signing up, you agree to our...
![Data wrangling: definition, steps, tools [guide 2021]](https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/app/uploads/data-wrangling-240x240.jpg)
Data wrangling: definition, steps, tools [guide 2021]
Data wrangling might sound like quite the intimidating tech term on the surface yet anyone can develop an understanding of this process with a little bit of time and effort. Data wrangling, also known as data munging, is part of the larger process of “data preparation”. Data wrangling is the process performed to collect, select, re-structure, enrich and ultimately transform information with the aim of answering a specific question. This overarching question is usually highly analytical....
![Data preparation: definition, examples, advice [guide 2023]](https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/app/uploads/desk-research-data-graphs-figures-240x240.jpg)
Data preparation: definition, examples, advice [guide 2023]
To talk about data preparation, what better way to start than from observation. In the world of data, there is a rule that everyone knows: 80% of a data scientist’s time is spent preparing his data, and only 20% working on it, especially its visualization. This article will focus on data preparation: the most frequently encountered problems, tools, and trends. Let’s go for new data adventures! Summary Introduction Data preparation: definition The 5 steps of data preparation Data...
![Data visualization: definition, examples, tools, advice [guide 2021]](https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/app/uploads/data-viz-240x240.jpg)
Data visualization: definition, examples, tools, advice [guide 2021]
Data Visualization, or DataViz, is the discipline that focuses on the graphical representation of raw data. The purpose of data visualization is to create value. The last few years have seen the emergence of new tools and practices around data visualization and new professions’ emergence. This article will start by giving you the definition of data visualization and illustrate with a concrete example of the 5 levels of data visualization. We will then cover the evolution of data...
![[Podcast] The essence of Data Art and Data Visualisation](https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/app/uploads/collage-closeup-240x240.jpg)
[Podcast] The essence of Data Art and Data Visualisation
Nicholas Rougeux defines himself as a “data artist”, and his talent for visualising data is obvious. So obvious that he markets his work in the form of posters and I even got one for my birthday 🙂 Run to his blog (www.c82.net) if you lack inspiration or if you want to see the best in DataViz. In this podcast, I talk with Nicholas about his creative process, his sources of inspiration, and of course, the technical aspects of...
Personalising customer relations: how to gain trust and data?
The recommendation algorithms promise marketers to achieve their Holy Grail: that of personalised relationships with all their customers at a reasonable price. Since the quality of customer relations is a decisive factor for customer satisfaction and loyalty, algorithmic recommendations, therefore, represent the promise of quality interactions with customers and meaningful marketing actions. However, large-scale customisation can only be achieved by using customer data and the digital traces they leave behind. In a world where privacy awareness...
![Leto automates GDPR compliance [podcast]](https://www.intotheminds.com/blog/app/uploads/keep-calm-gdpr-60x60.webp)
