How is Big Data Helping School Systems to Improve?

Every parent wants their child to have the best education, have you ever thought about what it takes to continuously improve the education system? Big data has managed to enter the school educational systems in order to enhance students, faculty, school and community information. When it comes to students, data is collected on the number of students, their behavior, lunch status, gender, absence, graduation rates and other categories. For the staff, again the number of teachers and their gender, the student-teacher ratio, their certifications, and experience. The location, history, and programs offered at that school are as important as any other data. Finally, the population of the community and support the school gets is also collected as beneficial data. 

When all this amount of data is gathered, imagine the improvement and solutions every school can apply on their system and comparing it with previous years to create a profile of student’s information such as attendance, health reports, behavior reports, grades and more, and have capabilities to get better and better by time as more data is asserted. In addition, looking for patterns in test scores can be a powerful tool to know the relationship between low scores, demographics, absence and health conditions for instance. After analyzing all this data, the school can predict which students are most likely to graduate and which may not. By that, they know the factors that affect student’s graduation and can improve graduation rates by focusing on solutions for problems.

For more information:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb03/vol60/num05/No-Schools-Left-Behind.aspx

http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/how-schools-are-using-technology-and-big-data-to-drive-performance

How Did Big Data Change the Traveling Industry?

When it comes to travel, a lot has changed in the past several years. Due to smartphones, internet access, social media influence and other aspects, the travel industry had grown massively. People can now use multiple applications that provide booking sites for everything you need while traveling from airline tickets to hotel reservations to suggestions on places to visit at that place you traveled to. It gives you the whole plan for your trip based on feedback from previous travelers while you just have to manage your spending’s and enjoy.

Travelers are going through major changes and they have much more awareness and plenty of important information like what kind of choices they have, the expectations on the trip and what they should predict, and the quality of service offered. Technology gave travelers more experience and opportunities but at the same time had some challenges in facing competitors. Customer preference and quality service is what every travel agency or application looks for in this field in order to make the customer have a delightful trip with their assistance based on the big data analytics they have.

How do they collect all this data?

Each traveler leaves behind data and information about the reservations he had such as the airlines, hotels, car rentals, trains and other local transportation and several more. This is considered valuable information that gets gathered and saved for the next customer. It is basically forecasting what the market trend is and what the traveler really does or intend to do on his or her trip to personalize and target upcoming travelers.

You can read more here..

http://www.happiestminds.com/blogs/how-big-data-analytics-is-redefining-the-travel-industry/

How Does Starbucks Know How You Like Your Coffee?

doesn't this just make you crave it? 

Have you ever wondered how Starbucks knows how we drink our coffee or tea? How do they come up with these new flavors that match the customer’s order? Based on some of their records made back in 2015, they found out that almost 50 % of people who drink tea usually skip sugar. On the other hand, they noticed that customers who order iced coffee and about 25 % of them do not add milk or cream to their cold drink. For that reason, Starbuck started selling a new product, the unsweetened ice tea K-Cups with two available flavors, Peachy Black Tea and Mango Green Iced Tea. In addition, they recently launched sweetened and unsweetened black iced coffee without milk or added flavors.

By this strategy of launching what customer’s really like, Starbuck is doubling consumption due to the freedom the customers have of ordering their favorite drink at a Starbucks or making it themselves at home. To get to buy Starbucks coffee blends and tea’s, consumers are freely to get them from the nearest grocery store which they are currently selling them in almost every location they have or head to the closest Starbucks coffee shop and purchase it. They are really expanding the distribution of their products to the maximum.

For the past several years, a lot of new flavors have launched beside the original coffee and tea types at Starbucks. For instance, in 2003, Pumpkin Spice Latte was a hit in stores and made a remarkable traffic at fall season in the Starbucks shops. After that, Starbucks started to offer Pumpkin Spice Café Latte K-Cups which is an instant packet, and also the bottled Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino and Iced Espresso with pumpkin spice flavor. They are succeeding in being widely distributed and making the customer avoid any other coffee or tea blends at the supermarket and purchase Starbucks and Starbucks only. It is very smart of them to offer exactly what their customer needs and provide it in the nearest store so that everyone can have access to it and skip other brands.

Although some people think that Starbucks is making their customers confused by offering these many options at their locations and in stores, others are glad to have multiple options to try different types of coffee or tea according to the season changes all year round. Others say that no matter what Starbucks sells at grocery stores, they will not buy it because it is too hard to make at home, instead, they prefer to head to the nearest Starbucks coffee shop and order their favorite drink to enjoy it.

To read more, please visit the original Starbucks website:

https://www.starbucks.com

or my friends blog:

http://kaitnastro.blogspot.com/

recourse:

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/04/06/big-data-starbucks-knows-how-you-like-your-coffee.html

How does IKEA use social media to grow their marketing success?

What we experience these days differs than what was going on twenty or thirty years ago in the marketing and the advertising business. Back then, television was the main source where people get to be exposed to commercials and advertising. However, nowadays there are other applications and social media platforms where people can be targeted to different ads that support companies in diverse fields.

IKEA, one of the largest home furnishing companies is now using social media as a major source for advertising in the marketing strategy. The catalogue of IKEA 2013 was downloaded 10,000,000 times through their application. That definitely was the result of the marketing strategy they have been using and still improving as they see possibilities.

IKEA on social media

Facebook: They have a massive number of followers on Facebook that is currently up to 3 million in the USA IKEA page. Their team answer questions, post photos and link YouTube videos to maximize the customer’s engagement.

Twitter: Followers of Ikea’s page in the USA is up to two million, and their Canadian page has about six million. They try to make customers engage as possible as they can.

Pinterest: IKEA uses Pinterest in most countries such as the USA, CANADA and the UK due to its visual tool that serves companies in home furnishings.

IKEA also started to use Google Plus since 2014 and try to make the best of it. In addition, it uses standard advertising such as outdoor campaigns and indoor gardens. Because of that, IKEA is considered a successful retailer home furnishing company that managed to enhance both traditional and digital marketing.

http://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/home-and-decor/furniture-and-decor/how-ikea-uses-social-media-to-emerge-a-marketing-success/30857725

  

Is data affecting our daily life?

Living in the age of speed, digital and technology, we are surrounded and influenced by rapid digital data. We are able to download music, watch a video, look for directions to different locations, send messages and photos and buy almost anything at the same time. All this is definitely influencing the way we sleep, work and live our day. A major new intensive technology that is available for individuals, industries, and organizations for that last few years is big data.

Some of the aspects that are affected by big data includes:

 1.     Online shopping:

Whenever you search for something on the internet at any website or anytime there is data collected about your behavior. Therefore, any time you log to your browser, you receive an ad for something that is very similar to what you were looking for before, and yes that is kind of creepy but sometimes useful. Thanks to big data which is responsible for that, you might find your delight item at the recommended field on the bottom of the page.

2.     Mobile maps:

Due to big data, we have applications on our phone for directions and locations (GPS). A huge number of maps get scanned and used for GPS applications and it is accurate too. What’s more interesting is that construction sites, working zones and accidents appear on your map so you do not get stuck in traffic. These GPS devices are making our lives easier and saving us time every day. 

3.     Music streaming:

Pandora and Spotify are two main applications for music streaming these days. They both use big data to provide you with the type of music you like. Every like or skip you make on these programs will be saved as data of your taste and style so that the best songs that matches your style gets delivered to you.

4.     Medical Records:

Computers are getting more and more full each day with information and records of patients and doctors. These electronic records make detecting trends done by doctors easier across medical histories data resulting in effective and better medications and treatment for patients than it ever was before.

5.     Small wearable devices:

Have you ever seen some one wearing a fitness band or a small device called Fitbit? This device, which is similar to a watch in size, is becoming more and more common. What it basically does is it measures the activity you do every day, compare it with your weight, analyze it and let you know whether you are living a healthy life style or not, determine if you had enough sleep during the night, compare age with activity, measure calories and heart rate to track your actions and movements, and all of this is because of big data.

6.     Crime:

Using bag data in cities, police had the ability to reduce thefts and burglaries and made it safer to live because it surly affects the place you settle to live in. police can now determine where and when are accidents of crime and theft may happen.

 7.     Television streaming:

Do you watch Netflix? Did you know that in order for Netflix to decide what to make next, they have to use big data? In fact, Netflix uses predictive modelling and analyzing the massive number of hours of what we stream on TV to give us recommendations of similar programs we liked and watched and create new programs too. They find out what the audience prefer and what is more popular to create hit series and movies.

8.     Advertising:

Have you ever noticed that the internet knows exactly what you are searching for? How does the internet know that this pair of shoe showing on your Facebook account is what you are looking for after just searching about sneakers the previous day through amazon? Several processes were done to understand what is relevant to your search.

http://businessintelligence.com/bi-insig

What is beauty?

Who can describe beauty? What does it mean? What is the real definition of the word? How can you tell if that woman is beautiful or not? Some might see her as a beauty queen while others may not. In terms of the universal standards of beauty, people argue that there are no metrics for beauty due to the differences among cultures. With media all around, women have found themselves surrounded by photos of thin celebrities with fine skin and free of impurities. Regrettably, those pictures are not real and had been modified to attract as many people as possible. Unfortunately, many people believe in those fake advertisements, especially women, and start comparing themselves with these fabricated photos while putting their bodies and skin under unfair comparison and experiences. 

Dove is a well-known beauty company that was established back in 1930. It sells various choices of products concerning men and women’s beauty by focusing on the consumer’s needs rather than the product. In the past few years, the company realized that by going down the same path as other beauty supply companies, it would benefit neither Dove nor it’s consumers. For that reason, it managed to change the company’s strategy to embrace all types of women in every community no matter what their skin colors is, their age differences, their ethnicity or their body shape and figure. In a study that was conducted by their PR agency, Edelman, the results were unpleasant. It showed that only 2% of 3,000 women in 10 different countries considered themselves beautiful. That’s why one of the most modern and successful marketing campaigns and most talked about is the Dove campaign for real beauty, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/21/dove-real-beauty-campaign-turns-10_n_4575940.html. It revealed how women really think of themselves in a tacky way instead of looking at the bright side and see their natural beauty and what differentiate them from others. This video became one of the most watched videos of all times on YouTube due to its message. In this campaign, Dove’s strategy was to increase consumer awareness by sending a key message to women on how to focus more on their normal beauty.

Dove’s vision is simply about being confident with your look and be positive about it. They are trying to raise women’s self-esteem by showing them that beauty should be a source of confidence, not an anxiety. They have three main campaigns that started back in 2004, one of them is the Dove self-esteem project, another is the education about self-esteem in young people, and finally, partnerships. This demonstrates that the company is concerned with the consumer, not just the products and revenue, which makes a connection between the brand and the consumer. To read more about Dove’s vision, products or even stories, visit https://www.dove.com/us/en/stories/about-dove/our-vision.html. 

For every company that has the main objective of selling products and claim the material return, the marketing mix is essential. Starting with the product (1), Dove has accomplished having a large variety of choices including shampoo’s, conditioners, creams, lotions and other beauty products for both genders, male and female. For the price strategy (2), Dove is suitable for almost anybody due to its value based pricing, promotional pricing, and penetration pricing. Place (3), Dove has distribution channels such as supermarkets, pharmacies and hypermarts and indirect marketing channels. (4) for promotion, Dove’s advertising strategy is commercials and advertisement. To conclude, Dove has differentiated itself than other companies in the same field by focusing on several modern strategies with new ideas that match the market. That definitely supported the company to have a huge audience in a very competitive market.