The Centre for Economic and Business Research is a respected economic consultancy. Earlier this year we asked them to look at the value of analytics to the UK today, and forecast the likely growth of analytics over the next five years. Their full findings can be downloaded here.
But why am I bringing this up here on a Marketing blog? Because right at the centre of the report sat Customer Intelligence. CEBR identified six big data mechanisms that lead to improved business efficiency, innovation, and new business creation. These were:
- Customer Intelligence
- Supply Chain Management
- Quality Management
- Risk Management
- Performance Management
- Fraud Detection
Within the research paper CEBR make reference to a survey carried out by TDWI into where the respondents saw Big Data potentially adding value to their organisations. Of the 15 alternative areas identified, three of the top four identified potential benefits fell within Marketing.
- Customer Intelligence Efficiency Benefits
Diving into the detail of the report we find that they see the application of analytics to customer intelligence growing significantly over the next five years. In fact a quick calculation on the total value of CI to the UK economy would indicate a compound annual growth rate in that value of 7.25%. Given the current anaemic levels of growth in economies around the world at the moment, this research gives independent academic confirmation to the sense that I think we all have that Marketing Analytics as a profession is in the process of taking of and moving from the a niche activity to becoming a core marketing capability.
If you are interested to learn more, I would encourage you to download the entire report. But one final thought. CEBR expect Big Data Analytics to be an area of significant jobs growth in the next five years. Many of those jobs will be inside Professional Services companies. We should see an explosion in the numbers and sophistication of Marketing Service Providers providing advanced analytical capabilities to businesses. It looks like it's a good time to be a statistician in marketing.
