The relationship between Big Data, data science, digital analytics and the skills and abilities needed to optimise marketing decisions
Abstract
In this paper the authors present a comprehensive assessment of the evolution of Big Data and its role in creating the need for data science and digital marketing analytics professionals. The authors begin by providing a brief history and evolution of Big Data and follow that with an empirical analysis of the general skills and abilities desired by employers when making an analytics hire. Using job postings on LinkedIn, the demand for various types of analytics will be presented. Two of these, Data Scientist and Digital Analytics Professionals, will be discussed, drawing comparisons from specific position descriptions and job requirements. This analysis clearly demonstrates the similarities and differences between a data scientist and a digital analytics professional. Among the similarities is the growing acknowledgement that data analytics on large and complex data sets requires a new breed of employee — one who has depth of expertise in a specific area of responsibility while also being fully grounded in a domain of importance to a business. Crunching numbers without understanding the context in which they were gathered or understanding the business context of the patterns in the data is a waste of time and money. Companies also benefit by using teams of diverse individuals working with big data in optimising analytics efforts.
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Author's Biography
Angela D’Auria Stanton is Professor of Marketing at Radford University where she teaches undergraduate courses in marketing research and marketing analytics, and graduate courses in the foundations of data analytics and advanced data visualisation. Angela began her career as an IT professional with the US Navy, Advanced Technology, and Vice President of Information Technology Solutions. As a marketing research and analytics consultant, she served as Vice President of Stanton & Associates and President of The Strategy Group. Angela holds a BBA in Information Systems, an MBA and PhD in Business, with a major in Marketing and an emphasis in International Marketing and Cross-Cultural Research Methodology from Old Dominion University.
Wilbur W. Stanton is a professor of marketing at Radford University, where he teaches undergraduate courses in marketing research, advertising and consumer behaviour and graduate courses in predictive analytics and data mining. His research and consulting focus on ad testing, consumer behaviour / insights, A / B (split) testing, competitive analysis, business intelligence, market segmentation, product / brand development and marketing research. Wil applies advanced predictive analytics and data mining techniques using SAS and SAS Enterprise Miner, SPSS and SPSS Molder and R to bring about positive and innovative solutions to business problems and the optimisation of business decisions. He holds a PhD in decision science with an emphasis in applied statistics and strategic decision making, master’s in decision science, an MBA and a BBA in marketing from Georgia State University.
Citation
Stanton, Angela D’Auria and Stanton, Wilbur W. (2016, September 6). The relationship between Big Data, data science, digital analytics and the skills and abilities needed to optimise marketing decisions. In the Applied Marketing Analytics: The Peer-Reviewed Journal, Volume 2, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.69554/FIUZ6205.
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