Foreseeing events before they happen. This power, largely associated with fortune tellers
and Precogs in the movie Minority Report (predict crimes before they happen), is a reality.
Companies are now actively collaborating with social media platforms (~Twitter) leveraging
user data to predict future purchasing outcomes (predictive analytics) as a result of advances in
Big Data/Crowdfunding.
As profiled in the National Bestseller, “Big Data,” authors Vikto Mayer-Schonberger and Kenneth Clark profile how the retail chain, Target, “relies on predictions based on big-data correlations.” For example, knowing if customers are pregnant is important to retailers given it shapes shopping behaviors including going into new stores and developing brand loyalties. Target, using purchasing behavior data, determined which customers were most likely pregnant based on prediction scores (derived from a dozen products acting as proxies). These scores allowed Target to “estimate due dates within a narrow range so it could send relevant coupons for each stage of pregnancy.” Though Target’s practice ultimately was deemed controversial and a potential violation of privacy (teenager was solicited though she was pregnant), it illustrates the power of Big Data for predicating future purchasing outcomes.
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