What has astrology got to do with predictive analytics? Completely different subjects of interest. The later being of particular interest to me and my profession.
I take astrology to illustrate how ancient sciences, or pseudo science for some, because of similar patterns seen in many of the modern day tools. For non-believers of new age marketing, here are certain uncanny examples that may help understand the power of predictive analytics in marketing and vice-versa. For astrologers, you may feel good by knowing that predictive analytic tools can help you to cater to your clientele, better.
About Predictive Analytics For Marketing
For businesses like yours, aiming high “Glocally” (global + local), your marketing has to adopt digital media if not already done; sooner than later. For you, as the business owner/manager or CxO, facing hundreds of market variables in your growth engine; such as buyer demographics, funnel engagements, financial transactions, service calls, and others…predictive analytics can be the knight in shining armor.
As more people embrace digitized living and social media influences every business, real-time analytics to drive home positive growth will become a must. And digital adoption based on predictive analytics tool will help improve your business processes, plus save blind marketing costs.
For predictive analytic tools can help you execute geo-targeted activities based on geo-referenced data. Having said that, it will help your marketing deliver micro-customized messages to buyers based on their cloud persona, or digital body. Isn’t that #AweZing?
Enter Astrology: Predictions For The Future
Astrology, regarded as a pseudoscience, has formed from a number of belief systems. Astrologers believe that there is a relationship between the movement of the stars and planets and other events with personality types in the human world. However, through various tests and experiments, non-believers have accused astrologers of making vague predictions. And that their predictions have never been more accurate than that expected by chance alone.
But even today, in many parts of the world, as like in India, many businesses look up to astrologers to foretell good and bad times. The following chart is from spiritualresearchfoundation.org.
Application or Use | Meaning |
| Predictive | To know about what lies ahead |
| Diagnostic | To act as an aid to solve difficult medical cases or for that matter understanding the root cause of a difficulty affecting any aspect of life. For example, a person may ask an astrologer the question as to why he is continually facing financial difficulties despite having a good income. |
| Basic nature and compatibility | To understand one’s basic nature and compatibility with profession or with a life partner based on each other’s zodiac signs or horoscope. |
| Decision making | This includes knowing the recommended auspicious time for a planned event such as marriage or an opening ceremony for one’s business or to answer a specific question such as when one should get married. |
And then there are astro marketing services that have been analyzing the effects of the Sun and the Moon to help solve sales nightmares, improve branding and utilize astro strengths to “market” better.
3 Uncanny Similarities – Do You Agree?
None of the two criss-cross paths in the marketing world, other than the humans involved. However, there are certain uncanny similarities to explore here. And some practical instances for illustration. Readers are requested to add their perspective.
No. 1: Both are Intensely Data Driven.
Test predictive analytics in work on popular eCommerce Sites like AliExpress, Amazon, Flipkart. Re-visit any one you like and see how elements on the pages dynamically change under “recommended” products or “deal of day” or “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed” or “What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?” or “Customer Reviews on this item”, or “Would you like to see more reviews about this item?” or “Look for similar items by category”. Predictive analytics tools here track your behavior on their site, your past browsing history and the online behavior of similar buyer persona.
Astrologers on the other hand heavily depend on data on the movement of the sun, the moon and the planets based on their clients’ birth date and time. Their recommendations are based on their past experiences with similar client persona and demographics.
There is a lot to learn from the above examples. To gain an edge over your competition, your business needs competitive analytics to evaluate available opportunities and strategize for the big win. Does predictive analytics guarantee success? No, but it sure improves your chances of gaining competitive advantage.
No. 2. Both Are Predictive Sciences.
Tina Lieu, a former project manager at Basis Technology says that the EMBERS project team working out of Virginia Tech has been successful in forecasting civil unrest in Latin America for the past two years, with an average lead time of around 7 days. It uses big data and text analytics to do its forecasting. It’s fascinating how it all comes together. Read the story here: http://www.basistech.com/predict…
While I haven’t come across any corroborating astrology predictions forecasting civil unrest in Latin America, I believe an astrologer would try to do the same. Refer to the planetary big data, analyze the patterns and predict the future.
And here is one instance that you may like to track to see if astro-predictions are true:
“Saturn will continue to tighten the screws and Rahu-Ketu will ensure that the uncertainty doesn’t fade away easily; respite foreseen only post January 2017!”
– Rantidev A. Upadhyay and Aaditya Sain from The GaneshaSpeaks.com Team on
Vijay Mallya – Chariman of UB Group
No. 3. Both Are Work In Progress: Accuracy – Security Concerns.
I believe, giving astrologers the benefit of doubt, BigData analytics can help them do better. If the number of variables; from historical information of planetary movements to the zodiac connections to the future arrangement of the constellations can be structured; predictive analytics can give better results. It can help bring in consistency and plausible mechanism of numbers.
Though by itself, predictive analytics is work in progress. Though it is being widely used in actuarial sciences, marketing, financial services, insurance, telecommunications, retail, travel, healthcare, child protection, pharmaceuticals, capacity planning and other fields… there are skeptics.
Argument 1: Quoting from Wikipedia
”….people are influenced by their environment in innumerable ways. Trying to understand what people will do next assumes that all the influential variables can be known and measured accurately. But people’s environments change even more quickly than they themselves do. Everything from the weather to their relationship with their mother can change the way people think and act. All of those variables are unpredictable. How they will impact a person is even less predictable. If put in the exact same situation tomorrow, they may make a completely different decision. This means that a statistical prediction is only valid in sterile laboratory conditions, which suddenly isn’t as useful as it seemed before.”
Argument 2: Privacy And Security
Making tonnes of individual data available is by itself a huge security challenge. How do you protect an individual’s privacy? What are the protection barriers that prevent hackers from misusing this data?
Argument 3: The CXO Disbelievers
- Does analytics work?
- Can machines replace human decision-making processes?
- Can past experiences of varied sets of data in this complicated world help make decisions?
- What if the prediction goes against the CXO and team’s professional expertise and gut feeling?
- Does this mean businesses stop taking risks and strive on data alone?
Hence, both are uncannily “Work In Progress”. And though high level collaborations across the globe mean more accurate models and secure solutions; I believe such arguments won’t subside for long.
What is your take on predictive analytics?
Food for thought. Do you think,
- CXOs who believe in astrology, either fully or partly, are more likely to adopt predictive analytics for business intelligence (BI)?
- Humans will become redundant is spaces where predictive analytics is at work?
- Traditional innovations that are based on gut feel and risk taking will die?
Like the wheel was invented without predictive data on how it would succeed in the future.
The jury is out to you.
Happy Predicting!