The Power of Data

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

You purchase toothpaste and milk at a store and the cashier hands you an arm’s length of printed coupons, many of which will be quite useful on your next shopping trip. How does the store know that you like specialty coffee, Greek yogurt and a particular brand of paper towels? How did they figure out that you have a large dog or that you suffer from seasonal allergies? It all comes down to data.

Data drives just about everything these days: how people work, travel, shop, eat, exercise. Today, individuals can make decisions big and small armed with a wealth of information to which they’ve never had access before. Stuck in traffic? A mobile app can identify a better, faster route in real time. Planning a vacation on a budget? A website can provide the best time to book a flight. Need some exercise? An app can track workouts, examine progress over time and even compare perfor mances to others.

Everyone uses data. And for many of the decisions people make, data-driven or otherwise, there’s a business using data to influence those decisions.

"There’s no business that can ignore the use of data," says Georgette Chapman Phillips, the Kevin L. and Lisa A. Clayton Dean of the College of Business and Economics. "I don’t care if you’re a retailer, if you are in financial services or accounting, whatever you’re doing. You have a bank of data, and if you’re not using that data in your business, you’re squandering so many opportunities."

Companies have long utilized business insights and customer analytics to solve complex problems and personalize the consumer experience. The type of coupons customers receive with their receipts isn’t accidental; nor are the appropriately timed newsletters in inboxes or the items online retailers suggest buyers might like. The simple scan of a loyalty card provides information that allows a business to plan for demand, stock shelves accordingly and even provide those personalized coupons that encourage return visits. The more a business can learn about its customers, the better it can serve them—and the more it can sell.

Today, marketers have access to an unprecedented amount of data and the innovative technologies that allow them to manage and analyze it.

"All this data is changing the way people around the globe do business—and more importantly, it’s changing the way Lehigh prepares students for life after graduation," says David A. Griffith, professor and chair of the Department of Marketing.Page 1 of 4

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