..the data says you’re more likely to crash.
People use data in all sorts of ways and when used properly it’s a great tool to build your business by reaching people who want to buy your stuff.
But to do this we need to talk to our ideal customer, so we use data to try and understand their worries, feelings and what they really want.
However, I’ve found the quality of data available varies considerably and therefore what you can learn from a data set can be, in short, not a lot.
Take the colour of cars for example. Data has shown that red cars are the most likely to be involved in accidents! ?
This seems strange at first glance. A red car is hard to miss on the roads, being bright and distinctive, whereas the least likely car to be involved in a crash, grey could easily fade into the background of our concrete roads.
However, if you look deeper and apply a little knowledge of human behaviour and psychology, you can better understand the data.
If a person buys a sports car, it is more likely to be red (although I had a British racing green one in my twenties – however it was an MG and there is no other colour for them in my opinion ?).
And people who buy sports cars tend to be younger, have certain behaviours and buy the car for a specific reason, so may test the car’s speed range and not drive as defensively as others. (I will say this was not me!)
It’s not that every young person that buys a red sports car will be involved in a crash, but this is one story the data appears to be telling.
So it shows us that we have to be careful when using data to make decisions in our businesses, and especially in our marketing. We need to look behind those headlines and add a little pinch of salt.