They Say "We're Data-Driven," I Hear: "We're Stale"

Marketers drizzle the phrase "data-driven" across their website like a glob of ranch dressing over salad from a franchised pizza place.

I've interviewed dozens of marketing professionals over the years, and 87.3% of the time, when they say "we're data-driven," I hear: "we're stale." The conversation invariably goes the same way. Jargon jargon jargon; then you ask a thought-provoking question to tease out perspective and style and quickly notice a distinct lack of critical thought behind their strategy. Every question prompting a creative answer is met with a lifeless number or case study.

They treat statistical significance as law because we all know there are no avenues for bias to enter data analysis. They treat consumer psychology as a rule book because people just love being treated like numbers. It's like ordering a 4-course meal from a vending machine because it has "Made Fresh!" in bright, bold letters across the front. The claim is technically true, but the result is rarely worth it

I'm not discrediting data or the people who collect, clean, validate, and analyze it. Data analysis has textured nuance revealed only through experience and depth of flavour from steeping creativity. Obviously, there's benefit to sampling a population and leveraging the results to

• Develop standards for what we've learned doesn't work;
• Objectively settle debates of personal taste without involving HR;
• Derive interesting questions from unexpected results;
• Highlight trends and opportunities we'd otherwise miss.

But most marketers use data as a crutch to overcompensate for tone-deaf style. They're chefs who let their knives write the menu. Blind optimization leads to fast food; creative ideation and masterful execution lead to a Michelin star.

What makes a brand memorable?

Recall an experience, personal or professional. Maybe it's a story you love to tell new friends.

Can you pinpoint why your story is so memorable?

Odds are you carry that memory because of how every detail came together, not because of any one element. In most situations, you can't point to one thing and say, "that's it!" even if there was one detail adhering the memory to your conscious mind.

Now think about how you'd share that story. You wouldn't note the room's ambient temperature or the colour of your shirt (unless they're integral to the story). You give background and introduce characters before shaping ephemeral sensations and detailing transient phenomena, and even then, your description is a story, not a checklist.

I'm describing a gestalt entity - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It’s this quality that makes something memorable. We cannot recreate it by following the data. Top-down, the totality of an experience cannot be reduced to components and retain the spark. Bottom-up, engineering every unit doesn't guarantee a memorable experience.

You can take that as a challenge and try defining the assembly line. You'll separate the components from their context (which includes your subjectivity at the time). You'll notice the distinct lack of spark that made it memorable. The magic becomes clinical.

Yet that's precisely what data-driven marketers do! They dissect, reduce, and boil down as if egg-fried rice is merely egg, fry, and rice. The result: bland, sterile marketing that reads like ChatGPT off an unspecific prompt. We must evoke sensation. Otherwise, what's the point? Launching a carbon copy website of your competitor because that design garnered 11.6% more clicks last quarter? Publishing the same article with the same structure and the same headline as most else on the internet because your marketing strategy has regressed to the lowest common denominator? Is your marketing goal to fade into white noise or to stand out as signal in a crowded market?

A memorable experience is more than the aggregate results of siloed A/B tests. A flavourful dish is more than each individual ingredient. Unique experiences contain irreducible joie de vivre. We create memorable experiences by distilling the relevant essence of life into 1000 words.

At the risk of sounding cliché, marketing material should evoke the same goosebumpy sense of awe. That's the difference between good writing and bad writing, whether we're reading Stephen King or David Ogilvy.

Both writers deploy systems to facilitate creativity with prolific results (King's writing habit and Ogilvy's 1982 memo), but those systems don't replace their vision, style, or expertise. Intuition like theirs cannot be reduced to parts without sacrificing the magic that separates art from imitation.

What's the role of data analysis in marketing?

Like a knife, data is a tool that's no more skilled than its wielder. Data analysis can help us identify efficient paths to your destination but cannot give you direction. Data can help identify high-leverage opportunities, but it's deaf to the social context around that activity. Data can (in)validate a thesis, but it cannot and should not replace high-level thinking.

We must understand when to ignore trends and rely on our humanity to consider the world around us. Otherwise, you're always one step behind, looking for a newsletter to tell you what tactic is hot this week. Or worse, you end up like some profiteering corporations touting inclusivity while funding oppression. Hypocrisy is bad PR, and the practice is driven by data.

Trends and algorithms change every day. Human psychology takes generations to iterate and evolve. Your marketing strategy should be a timeless reflection of the values behind the brand.

For a brand strategy and marketing plan that transcends white noise, book an introductory consult with me – no strings, no pitches, no gambits. Let's bring your marketing to life.