Let me start this article by asking a straightforward question to all the eminent readers, whenever you take a decision in your life, do you rely on facts and figures or do you believe your intuition? The expected answer in my opinion would be that most of the decisions are based on facts and figures. It is due to the fact that with innovation and advancements in the world, people are increasingly becoming pragmatic. They have started to rely more on facts and available evidences and have been devaluing the vital power of Intuitive Thinking. As more and more data are generated in today’s world which is easy to interpret and understand, thanks to availability of advanced visualization tools, people are neglecting intuition-based thinking. Intuition based thinking involves thinking about something and taking a decision without the use of logic and algorithms. In other words, it is based highly on previous experiences and gut feeling. Even Mr. Dean Koontz said that “Intuition is seeing with the soul”.

One of the industries which is heavily undervaluing the role of Intuitive thinking is big data industry. As its name suggests, it is highly dependent upon data and takes not as much of interest in intuitive thinking as compared to available data. For the maximum times , it considers the visualized reports and statistical figures obtained after analysis of data. Another fact which needs to be highlighted is that it happens in all the necessary fields of big data whether it is marketing analytics , financial insights, operational analytics and much more. All the fields have become so relied on data that slowly they are ignoring the importance of intuitive thinking which in my opinion will always have an essential role while making strategies and decisions. In this article I would like to have a discussion specifically about the field of marketing analytics and what role does intuition play in it.

Marketing analytics is a field in which consumer metrics are recorded and accordingly insights are drawn. With the above explanation is it clearly evident that it has a heavy usage of data as a primary source to reach a specific conclusion or decision. Although if we discuss about traditional marketing, it is more about personalised engaging with consumers to derive so called term ‘metrics’ and then make necessary insights. As per my opinion, in spite of being an old approach, it is still very prevalent in today’s time as firstly it proves as a source of second opinion after results are derived from statistical analysis. Secondly, it helps to understand more about curiosity and excitement of consumers about a specific product or service. This can prove fruitful in getting the first mover advantage. The roles mentioned here are little general but does intuitive thinking have some specific role in marketing analytics?

The answer is yes. As per my understanding , instead of making a straightforward statistical hypotheses for testing data, intuitive thinking must be applied to frame a hypotheses which is not only statistically significant but also understands the general perception and taste of consumer. Secondly , as we know that marketing is about focusing on overall customer experience, creating one of a kind of experience must not only be relied on statistical data. Here intuitive thinking involves thinking like a customer , imagining yourself at the place of the consumer and think about ideas by thinking as a consumer. In other words , focusing on a more personalised approach to provide a marvellous customer experience. Finally , I would like to recommend that through the use of intuitive thinking, and interaction with customers, better work practices can be found and implemented in the organisation. Just on the basis of available data , determination of new practices might be feasible but might not be logical and practical. Here intuitive thinking plays a key role in ensuring that practices which are being implemented have a strong connection with the real world where our consumers live.

In the end I would like to conclude that no matter how much data is generated on a daily basis and how much we are becoming reliant on it , role of intuitive thinking will always be crucial in making the final big decisions.