When I started my career back in the late 80s, ‘intuition’ was a skill that was valued incredibly. It was used in marketing and sales meetings, used to help get clients, and intuition really only came with experience and wisdom. The most creative and intelligent people had it and everyone wanted it.
Coveted Intuition
Back then I often wondered how in the world do I get this coveted ‘intuition?’ After many discussions with peers, and many years of trying to figure out how to obtain intuition, I finally came to the conclusion that I actually have extensive marketing intuition. Here’s the bad news. Now that data driven marketing is obviously best practice, metrics are embedded in every marketer’s dashboard, and big data is a must, what’s a guy to do if he has lots of intuition?
Metrics and Data
Today, proper marketing is all about executing on metrics and data that help you create the right messages, imagery, calls-to actions, conversion tactics, digital channel selection and technology usage. These are not the only things to consider, but they are critical.
Brain Power
There is a common train between big data and human intuition. Are you ready for this? They both require a significant amount of brainpower and are fast. Intuition requires our brain to really work hard at trying to come up with a solution, or at least something close based on previous experiences.
“Big data is also fast. In fact, it’s so fast it delivers results in real time. I know that our brains are fast sometimes, but not 100% real time all the time. Also, big data requires big brain computing. We never see the actual processor, but we do see the end result of data that’s delivered to us in the form of numbers and percentages. An example of this could be Google Analytics.”
It’s Clear – Intuition Is Not Outdated
Let’s get back to the title of the article and turn it into a question. Is Marketing Intuition A Lost and Forgotten Art? Hmm. Maybe big data can give us a glimpse of how to answer that – Good luck with that one. I suggest if you are struggling with how to come to a conclusion, use your intuition, it will guide your thinking and help make your solution become a little clearer.
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