There are several problems with this notion that all decisions in marketing today should be informed and driven by data. First of all, the notion of using data to support decisions isn't necessarily a new phenomenon, right? We've always looked at how do we understand data about consumer behavior to inform decisions about what channels we market in. What has changed in the marketplace is the enormous amount of data that's available and created every day.

Too often it is assumed that data is the same thing as insight. But without understanding, data is just noise. In fact, data can confuse and paralyze when it’s more difficult to interpret.

In advertising today, it is simply becoming harder to break through and to reach the customer. There are a million ways for people’s attention to be divided, so brands are less able to rely on advertising alone and they’re focusing more on customer experiences.

Something that annoys me is that [advertisers] get lumped together as data-driven organizations. The notion of data is a lot of different things. You have all of these different systems and they don’t always talk to each together. Having the right person in the right place to access the data is difficult.

Qualitative information may be a conversation or an observation. I may interview someone and they say something interesting. I may observe people’s shopping habits to examine their buying behaviors. There are all kinds of research techniques you can use to get more unfiltered, real responses from people.