In late 2013, Target Corporation, one of the biggest retail organizations in Ame

Question

In late 2013, Target Corporation, one of the biggest retail organizations in America, announced one of the largest data security breaches in history, with tens of millions of credit cards compromised by system hackers. This case focuses on another interesting but less publicized event from the same time frame. “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that?” This question is emblematic of similar questions that are asked in companies all over the world in an effort to more specifically identify customers for increased sales opportunities. In this case, the Target brass were hoping to identify buying patterns of their female customers that would allow for effective promotion of specific products such as maternity and baby items. As Target has learned, customer buying patterns are representative of their life stage and to the extent that an organization can identify those life stages through data mining and information analysis, greater sales opportunities are possible. Target is one of many companies that have discovered the benefits of “big data” and “business analytics.” As individuals buy items, whether it is online or in a physical store location, they leave a data trail that can be collected, analyzed, and acted on by marketers in ways that were unheard of in the recent past. In Target’s case, when a customer pays for purchases with a debit or credit card, that customer is assigned a unique internal customer identification number. Monitoring those purchases over time allows company personnel to collect information and make inferences about the shopper’s lifestyle and family situation. For example, buying a small baseball glove, some animal crackers, and a DVD of the latest Pixar movie provides clues that a young boy may live in that household. With such information Target can provide coupons for age-appropriate clothing items, electronics, sporting goods, toys, and school supplies, thus increasing their chances to make more sales to that customer. So, to answer the question posed in the opening of the case, it turns out that Target can identify its pregnant customers before those customers may want anyone to know they are pregnant! This point is illustrated best by a man who walked into a Target store clutching a coupon booklet demanding to see the store manager. That coupon booklet was addressed to the man’s daughter, who was in high school at the time, and it contained coupons for things like cribs and baby clothes. Upon being asked by the upset customer
if Target was encouraging his daughter to get pregnant, the store manager apologized profusely for Target’s home office’s action. A few days later the store manager phoned the customer to apologize again and learned the customer’s daughter was actually pregnant, a fact that was revealed after the father returned from the store and spoke with her. As enhanced computer processing power becomes more prevalent and more people are trained in the science and art of business analytics, there is no question that companies will utilize these data to increase company performance. In fact, Target Corporation’s total revenues rose from $44 billion in 2002 to over $70 billion in 2013, an increase attributed to Target’s “heightened focus on items and categories that appeal to specific segments such as mom and baby.” However, the ability for companies to analyze big data with sophisticated techniques is not without some risk, and given Target’s highly publicized security breach in late 2013 Target must be highly sensitive to the issue. The key is to balance the need to ensure security and at the same time use data to enhance organizational success.
Questions for Consideration
2. Aside from the downsides to using big data discussed in the case, what other possible issues exist for companies implementing market research/ customer insight technology in this manner? As younger consumers, in general, continue to share more of their life online, how might companies of different types utilize that information to their advantage?

Explanation / Answer

Market research is very complex specially these days wherein lots of competition exists in the market and availability of many substitutes for the customer make it important to research on the consumer change of preferences and their buying pattern. First, one need to have the human resource who have the skills and knowledge in technology advancement and different software's available for better usage of big data available. Collection of data is one thing and connecting all of them together to form the result is another. Connecting the big data is another issue. Also, consumer behaviour is subjective which differs from person to person. Therefore, forming decision on human behaviour have to be based on large no. of people. Getting into customer insights, one needs to be very extrovert who can collect Good data by getting feedbacks from the consumers and building relationships.

Sharing anything online itself gives the right to the receiver to use the information unless that information is secure through some sites or by use of privacy settings. Like recently, we all witnessed the case of Facebook leaking information which the users have set to be personal, is a violation of the law of privacy. Similarity you may get the information from various other sources like when the customer's shops, social media, banking channels. But using them must be smart step that the customers must not feel cheated. Business practise must be ethical to the extent of getting information for making the products of their choice. Information must not be misused.

Companies like Netflix, Amazon, Flip kart, Google, etc., all utilize the information of the customers based on database available. Like if I am searching for pair of shoes one time in Google. If I open Facebook, I will be getting the deals on my page for shoes from amazon or another site. This is how it is connected via phone. Even if you talk about any place, you may get an SMS in your mobile having same deals. This is how google works. Customers doesn’t mind if they are getting good deals, they may mind if they are unnecessary being pop up by different sites.

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