Marketing analytics: the evolution of marketing research in the twenty‐first century

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the current state of marketing analytics and how it should become a standard marketing research tool in the twenty‐first century.Design/methodology/approach – The design of this paper is both a review of the field of marketing analytics and a discussion of how these factors must be enhanced and incorporated into twenty‐first century marketing research. As such this paper is offered as a viewpoint based on years of experience in the field and should serve as the basis for discussion and discourse by both academicians and practitioners.Findings – In the realm of marketing, primary research has traditionally focused on quantitative or qualitative methodologies to provide customer insights. With advances in technology, especially data mining, marketing analytics has become an invaluable tool and should be viewed as an equal component of the marketing research toolkit. Analytics requires marketers to use data to understand customers at every touch point through...