Labor Day Edition: How Big Data Helps Holiday-Themed Promotions
Marketing and promotions that are holiday-themed are nothing new.
And planning for them normally happens weeks and months ahead of time.
But this week, in light of the Labor Day holiday, we've been asked how big data can better develop themed promotions and outreach.
So today I'd like to take a minute to outline our approach, both with a winery's own data and with external, third party data.
There are learnings on both fronts, from visualizing historical trends to understanding your brand in relation to the bigger picture.
It starts with questions.
Here are six examples of questions we can ask our data sources, starting with sample assumptions of time frame (a specific holiday), a target market, and a category of wine (a red blend from Washington state, say).
- What are the most popular red blends consumed in my target market within a month of the holiday? And during that holiday weekend in particular?
- What terms do consumers in that market use to describe those red blends?
- What are the top red blend found on wine lists within a month of my target holiday?
- What are the most-searched food pairings in my target market? Which food pairings best match my wine?
- Looking at year over year data, what trends emerge during the two weeks on either side of my target holiday?
- More importantly, what trends emerge that my brand isn't part of? And how can I prepare for it? What trends emerge in my own data that I'm not aware of yet?
Obviously the questions would be different, given the parameters of your brand and your objective. But hopefully this demonstrates the essential strategy: asking questions of the data, and being curious about where the answers lead.
What are your questions? Your objectives? Your curiosity?
I'd be very glad to hear, and to learn how we can help.
Enjoy this holiday weekend, drink some great wine, and thank you, as always, for reading --