Leeds University Business School’s Professor John Maule, Emeritus Professor of Human Decision Making, has had some of his research featured in an article on Marketing Week today.
The article discusses the concern that marketers are making important decisions based on statistics and data and ignoring “gut feeling” and unpredictability of human nature, and uses Aviva as an example in a Case Study.
“Technology may be essential for analysing consumers’ online habits but can it really predict the erratic nature of human behaviour and thoughts? There are fears that marketers are failing to trust their own gut instincts and putting too much reliance on data analytics.
Relying on technology to make decisions is bad for business. This is according to researchers at Leeds University Business School who claim that people who use computers to make good decisions are being unwittingly led by technology into making bad ones.
They also claim machines gathering the huge volumes of data produced every day assume people act logically. Yet most software has been developed without a full understanding of how we actually think and behave.
The university’s report ‘Can Computers Overcome Limitations in Human Decision Making?’ says the result is a lack of confidence in trusting a hunch or a gut feeling because we rely too heavily on what computers tell us.
Few would argue that when it comes to customer profiling to improve the targeting of offers or personalisation, and the return on investment from marketing campaigns, data analytics software is extremely valuable. However, unless the best data insights are combined with the best business brains, common sense can be ignored.”
You can read the full article here: http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/strategies-and-tactics/computer-says-no-but-does-anyone-agree/4002181.article
