# Living in a Connected World 2018/What categories of data can benefit merchants to improve their sale profit?
## Introduction

With the advent of the 21st century, the digital age is developing more and more rapidly. At the same time, more and more people will use the Internet in their lives and work, we are witnessing the entry into the era of big data. When people use digital media, they will generate a series of personal data, what is personal data? First of all, this personal data does not involve company or organization information, he applies for the real designated contact. Second, "Personal data is recorded in an auto-running device(Ticher, 2008)", which refers to a computing device or an automated device, such as a monitoring system or closed-circuit television, etc. The data will be transcribed to the contents of the personal computer records. And personal data " can include any information about an identifiable, living individual which is recorded in any way(Ticher, 2008)." For instance, personal profile, web browsing history etc., which are likely to be tapped by some merchants in order to better understand consumer preferences and demand. Thus targeted product promotion, the promotion method can be offline or online. And ultimately make the business get more benefits and increase the awareness of their own brand. We will study from four aspects: consumer, consumer data, business promotion themselves method and the benefits brought about by effective advertisement, and through examples to confirm our argument: the acquisition of consumer data by the business can effectively enable the company to find their own direction, so as to increase the profit of the business. This paper will discuss consumers' classification, analyze consumption data, analyze what businesses can do after analyzing data, and carry out important business promotion methods.

## Main Concepts

Consumers There are two types of consumers, existing and growing. The potential increase in consumers is attracted to the way products are sold. Businesses can recommend products to existing consumers based on their gender, age and work. The number of people who buy products will increase. Potential increased consumers become existing consumers. Businesses then analyze their consumption data to attract the next set of potential customers. It's a continuous cycle. Merchants will investigate the existing consumers, analyze the consumption data, find out their common points, and then use the common points for point-to-point promotion to attract more people in need. First, the company's staff will conduct statistics on existing consumers (such as basic information and personal information) as well as these data. Secondly, find commonality and define the characteristics of potential users. Then, when businessmen understand what talent they need to attract, they can get the right drugs, invest in useful advertising, avoid inefficient investments and waste assets. Finally, when placing certain advertisements, merchants will attract corresponding potential users, thus expanding consumer groups and ultimately improving the interests of the company.
Consumers Data: The consumers data we need to consider is not only the identity information data, but also can involves customer consumption record. The identity information of consumers is their personal information which includes their name, gender, marital status and interests on goods. The types of data collected from consumers range from Internet browsing history to location via mobile devices to connections and interests via social media. The data is then processed and reused by various companies. Some of them are directly related to consumers, such as retailers (CMA, 2015). Other industries, such as information gathering and analysis, are not visible to many consumers (CMA, 2015). In general, data mining (sometimes called data or knowledge discovery) is the process of analyzing data from different perspectives and summarizing it into useful information that can be used to increase revenue, reduce costs, or both (Lokendra, 2013). Data mining software is one of the analysis tools for analyzing data (Lokendra, 2013). Although data mining is a relatively new term, it is not. For years, companies have used powerful computers to sift through vast amounts of data from supermarket scanners and analyze market research reports (Lokendra, 2013).
Wal-mart's data analysts, for example, have found that when new fathers buy diapers, they put beer in their shopping carts. So wal-mart came up with a good marketing strategy. It may seem ridiculous to put beer and diapers together, but when new fathers buy diapers, they can easily get the beer they need, which is very convenient for them (Nate, 2012). This shows the importance of data, which is directly related to the growth of sales. Many retailers analyze data to find out when to put the goods on the shelves and what goods to put together (Nate, 2012). Another example of shopping malls using data to determine when to put goods on different shelves. A Midwestern food chain USES Oracle's data mining capabilities to analyze local buying patterns. They found that when men bought diapers on Thursdays and Saturdays, they also tended to buy beer. Further analysis showed that these shoppers typically buy groceries weekly on Saturdays. However, on Thursday, they only buy some things (Lokendra, 2013). Retailers concluded they were buying beer for the coming weekend. The food chain can use this newly discovered information in a variety of ways to increase revenue. For example, they can move the beer monitor closer to the diaper monitor. They can ensure that beer and diapers are sold at full price on Thursday (Lokendra, 2013).
It is worth noting that as merchants collect a large amount of customer information in recent years, customers also begin to worry about the use of data. But any of this needs to be seen dialectically. For example, like Safari, its ios system occupies a large proportion of the market. It USES cookies to locate customers' geographical locations and collect browsing records that are of interest to customers, which has led some customers to object to them. But there are still people who don't object to being tracked when they visit the site (EY, 2013).
Aims of Consumption Data/What Can Data Analysis Do: These categories of data can help merchants in-depth understanding the need of users so that come up with new business promotion methods. In simple terms, on the one hand, using these data to better understand consumers and increase their satisfation with consuming experience, on the other hand, it helps excavate our potential users, which means expanding the consumer base. Today, data mining is primarily used by consumer-focused companies -- retail, finance, communications, and marketing organizations (Lokendra, 2013).A lot of data comes from study of behaviors by consumer tracking. Companies basically study these consumer-purchasing pattern to send them the right advertisements. There is many target examples used by merchants. The existence of target market is to attract a specific kind of customers through targeted sales (John, 2018). For example, one kind of shoes or clothes is only aimed at young people, or boys or girls among young people (John, 2018). It can also be a class of equipment such as waterproof clothing waterproof shoes, is only for outdoor sports enthusiasts(John, 2018). Then the merchant can attract the part of customers who are interested by designing specific products (John, 2018). Only through these consumption tracking records of data, businesses can really know what consumers often buy. Targeted advertising and other ways can be adopted by he leaders of merchants to increase consumers' chances to buy products based on different groups of people's needs.
Now many companies and businesses want to have their own set of data so that they can control their own operations through data analysis. Data can help them reduce operating costs, solve operational risks, increase the number of customers, and thus improve the profits of merchants (EY, 2013). Five years ago, customers would have marveled at the ads and products that merchants tailored for them. Now, customers have begun to expect to see products based on their own, customers are very willing to accept the promotion of the products they are interested in (EY, 2013). In this way, it is very convenient for customers who have no free time to choose from a dazzling array of products. These customers are willing to accept that. If the merchant does not provide it with the promotion of the content of these products and the dissemination of advertising. They are likely to lose these customers (EY, 2013).
Business Promotion Methods: Merchants can increase the value of their products online and offline in a variety of ways. For example, e-mail marketing, online advertising, etc., this type of advertising is suitable for small and medium-size enterprise, relatively cost-effective. It is also a promotion method under the cable, such as a billboard for a subway station. However, in today's digital age, "Internet and related technology development have produced digital and interactive promotional methods" https://smallbusiness.chron.com/marketing-promotional-methods-60437.html In short, More and more merchants choose to combine themselves with digital media to promote themselves. For instance, customers can find new products on Facebook, and they can also purchase through Facebook through the link. After receiving the product, If they feel satisfied, they may through social media tells their friends. This behavior will improve merchants awareness of the brand and products, It also makes this marketing model a virtuous circle. In this essay, I will introduce three unique advertising methods that can serve as a success story for promotion.
·The first is one of Adidas' digital marketing tools, which is summarized as "Let somebody else do the talking". Some time ago, Adidas has launched a product called the Fitness Tracking Chip. This chip allows the wearer to monitor his fitness progress, interact with people through the running route, and share it on social media. Adidas is a sports brand, so most people who buy this brand are willing to exercise and fitness. Therefore, this is the original intention of the company to design this product. This product allows athletes to record their exercise intensity and sports time, they also can choose social media for punching. In my opinion, this marketing model is very smart because the company captures the customer's needs, some customers choose punching on social media not only satisfies people's desire to show off but also gives them a way to record their lives. When his friends on social media see his records, even if they don't buy them, they will know more about the brand. This kind of publicity is promoted by customers, allowing customers to promote the company's products or the company's brand. This is a model for learning for some small and medium-sized enterprise. For companies, however, companies can use the chip to uncover customer demand for products, the company said. "A large amount of data collected through these tracking chips allows them to monitor when customers use the product and let them know when new products are needed(Turpin, 2016)". The company can improve its products by collecting data from the chip and exploring the customer's demand for the product, which is why Adidas has always been higher than other competitors.
·Another example to be elaborated is the promotion of a large British supermarket-Marks & Spencer, which can be called "understand the current hotspots and combine customer needs". In 2012, a supermarket in the United Kingdom launched a strategic policy aimed at reducing unnecessary packaging to achieve global environmental protection. This was the first supermarket to announce the beginning of environmental protection. The news was released, which aroused the enthusiasm of environmentalists. It is also very effective in reducing the cost of packaging for its own company. It can be said to be a win-win strategy model. First of all, this model has enabled some environmentalists to conduct hot discussions on the Internet, indicating that the recognition of the company's practices will make this environmental awareness more choices for the supermarket to purchase the necessities of their own lives. Secondly, for those who have not realized that they need to be environmentally friendly, maybe they will look at the advertisements of the merchants or through the sharing on the social media of friends, they will begin to pay attention to the issue of environmental protection. In fact, it is also a kind o "hot attitude" to buy items at this supermarket. In the end, the company can achieve high evaluation in the supermarket, making the brand's social reputation and people's awareness of the brand, and also gain more turnover, which is often a company key to improving merchants own interests.
·The third example is the most popular Pokémon. The company's marketing approach is summarized as "creating hot topics and accelerating the expansion of the company's peripheral products." The Elf is a cross-media series that includes games, novels, peripheral items, movies, and more. From the black-and-white version of the game console to the limited edition switch of the Pokémon series, sales have only increased, and the sales data shows that the Black Five has become the top five game sales in the United States in 2018, due to the company’s publicity strategy. This company not only focuses on making game consoles but also caters to the preferences of the mass customers, makes the products around, so that people can always access the products launched by the company and make the cartoon characters in Baoke’s dreams always hot discussion in social media. By monitoring people's data on the hot search of products, the company measures whether products are valued and forgotten by people, and produces more around product at the right time to evoke memories and heats of the company's cartoon characters. As a result, this series of products has always been hot in the market. When people who like Pokémon discuss Pokémon on social media, it is actually the success of publicity, because people's discussion makes this series produce a certain amount of heat, and products with a certain amount of heat must have good sales.

## Conclusion:

Consuming data comes from consumers themselves. The business promotion methods are designed by merchants are based on the consuming data, and the methods merchants use, such as advertising, influence consumers’ consumption tendency. These four aspects are users, consumers data, ways to promote awareness of the brand or company products and increase consumers (expanding consumers, companies increase interest) The first aspect: users: consumers of products The second aspect: consumers data - in simple terms, is to use data to better understand consumers and through data mining our potential users to make our products even better. The third aspect: the way to promote product promotion: equivalent to the company's investment in the external market, these investments can be online, it can also be off-line. The fourth aspect: increasing consumers: This is equivalent to expanding the consumer base and attracting more potential users. Then the relationship between the four aspects is: Firstly, the company's personnel will count existing consumers (such as basic information and personal information) and these data. Discover commonalities and clarify the characteristics of potential users. When we understand what type of people we need to attract, we can get the right medicine, invest in useful advertising, avoid inefficient investments, and waste assets. When we invest in certain ads, we will attract the corresponding potential users, thereby expanding the consumer group and ultimately improving the interests of the company.
This paper mainly describes the relationship between consumers, consumption data of consumers and business promotion methods. It also explains the types of consumers, how to get consumption data and the ways to increase the number of consumers through these data. Because these data can help these companies make specific arrangements. The continuous progress of data analysis and mining technology makes its application fields more and more extensive. It can also help many organizations in other ways. Not only for merchants, but it also has been applied to more fields, such as health care, finance and police detective. However, analysing consumers data is not enough if the business want to be stronger and more successsful. "Personalising products and services is also necessary, which includes using consumer preferences to offer a service more closely matched to their needs – for example in retailing, to make tailored recommendations (CMA, 2015)."

## References

CMA. (2015). The commercial use of consumer data. Report on the CMA’s call for information. Retrieved from 29/11, 2018. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/435817/The_commercial_use_of_consumer_data.pdf
EY. (2013). In the decade of the customer, knowing your customer means owning your data. Global Media & Entertainment Center. Retrieved from 29/11, 2018. file:///C:/Users/DELL/Desktop/10/essay%20resourses/EY-In-the-decade-of-the-customer.pdf
John, S. (2018). 11 Examples of Target Customers. Retrieved 25/11, 2018, from https://simplicable.com/new/target-customers
Lokendra, S. (2013). Data Mining: Review, Drifts and Issues. International Journal of Advance Research and Innovation. Volume 1, Issue 2 (2013) p.44-48
Nate, W. (2012). Diapers, Beer, and Data Science in Retail. Contemporary Analysis. Retrieved 25/11, 2018, from http://canworksmart.com/diapers-beer-retail-predictive-analytics/
Ticher, P. (2008). Data Protection vs. Freedom of Information. IT Governance Ltd. PP. 29-32.
Turpin, D. (2016). Four keys to marketing in the digital era. Retrieved from 29/11, 2018.https://www.imd.org/research-knowledge/articles/four-keys-to-marketing-in-the-digital-era/