Original Paper Marketing, Digital Environment and Big Data: A Preliminary Discussion about the Influences within A Company

This article discusses how Big Data influences Brazilian enterprises from the view point of marketing, once there is a deepening in the use of Information Technology (IT) in the business environment and is a differentiated competitive factor, as well as for the consumer. The bibliographical research involved subjects such as the evolution of digital marketing, digital inclusion, co-creation, social media, and Big Data, to have a theoretical vision. Through in-depth qualitative research, using the Focus Group method, the impressions of professionals with academic backgrounds were collected regarding knowledge, abilities and necessary competences for these enterprises to have full results, the need for curve experience, adaptability to the exponential world, as well as the opportunities and challenges stemming from this reality. One of the highlighted points of this research was the need to be dealing in still evolving digital atmospheres and that of ethical behavior, both in the collection, dissemination, and application of digital marketing strategies, as well as in information security.


Digital Marketing
Marketing must satisfy the needs and desires of consumers. This statement can be discussed from various points of view, but never challenged, because the client is the beginning, middle and end of every business, being his/her satisfaction the purpose of the whole organization. This essence went through a conceptual (r)evolution that was-and still is, the reflection of the society in which we live.
Based on Perreault and McCarthy (2002), the initial concept was Production, where the premise is that consumers prefer easy-to-find products and companies look for ways to cheapen production, indicating that companies must increase production volume and find ways to optimize processes in order to achieve a measure of productivity and scale economy. The idea of "factory floor" involves issues related to economic resources such as machinery, equipment, and production processes. The phenomenon of the Chinese initial economic growth is based on these assumptions, where the central objective was to offer products at lower costs and prices than the competition.
Later, this concept derived to the Product, where there was greater concern about the quality of what was manufactured, because companies understood that consumers prefer other attributes besides homogeneous products and low prices. Functionality, performance, durability, and design, among others, begin to make a difference in consumer choice. The automotive industry has gone through the production and product process in order to maintain its competitive position. If before the industry supplied standard style cars, today they seek to differentiate themselves by design, color, and other physical attributes.
After World War II, the U.S. economy had to recover from the impacts of the war period. Thus, with the increase in production and increased supply of products, the concept of sales became the focus of the companies, where the idea was to quickly release what was produced, based on the premise that consumers will only buy the amount desired by the company through strong promotion and sales stimuli. Hence the classic distinction of the concept that sales is something that aims at the short term.
Certain retail categories use this concept to maintain their sales as well as differentiate themselves from the competition. With the evolution of markets and consumer growth, some companies began to lose control of the quality of what they had promised. Hence the concept of Marketing, aimed at meeting the needs and desires of consumers, where the central concern is to establish long-term commitments and relationships and sales as a natural consequence of a well-applied marketing. Kotler and Levy (1969, p. 7) state that a company should be consumer-oriented rather than the product and, consequently, with social contributions. This concept is valid to this day.
In the 1970s, the international community began to discuss the finitude of natural resources, such as water, considered a non-renewable resource, and drifting on other issues related to global warming and how international and country public policies could minimize environmental and social impacts. From this derived Social Marketing, focused on social lacks and needs, which was then incorporated into companies as a competitive differential. In Brazil, the Social Responsibility movement gained strength from the 1990s, then expanding to issues related to sustainability. Companies begin to incorporate content in their communication as to how they practice politically correct activities in order to gain positive visibility before the different stakeholders, called by Freeman (1984) as stakeholders.
Previous concepts have evolved into Marketing 3.0 (Marketing 1.0 is related to Product and Marketing 2.0 to the consumer, respectively), where people are not simply consumers, but human beings led by beliefs, values and willing to transform the reality of their lives as well as society into a better world, with moral, justice, social, economic and environmental awareness. According to Kotler, Kartajaya and Setiawan (2010, p. 16), "they seek not only functional and emotional satisfaction, but also spiritual www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/jbtp Journal of Business Theory and Practice Vol. 8, No. 4, 2020 75 Published by SCHOLINK INC. satisfaction, in the products and services they choose". These choices reflect politically correct products and services that do not harm nature and are within sustainable practices. Cosmetic companies like Natura offer products that are not harmful to the environment, as well as extending to their raw material suppliers. In their communication, environmental awareness campaigns and other causes aimed at the continuous improvement of society can be inserted. This concept should be a flag to be defended, but not used as a simple way to promote itself in the market or obtain tax benefits. In addition to the traditional tools, categorized as ATL (Above the Line), we have the others, often from the digital world, categorized as BTL (Below the Line).

Marketing 4.0
According to Kuazaqui, Haddad and Marangoni (2019), companies, with the opening of international markets, and the need to maintain their competitive position and levels of growth, have sought new ways to do business, increase productivity and reduce operating costs. In the 1980s, companies in the industrial and retail sectors began conducting electronic transactions such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to optimize logistics and supply chain. Financial institutions have also sought to streamline their processes, such as those related to communication between local and international agencies. In general, this movement towards the digital world has expanded rapidly, influencing virtually all economic segments, from private and public services, such as post offices and urban sanitation, to monitoring agricultural areas using drones and applications, establishing itself with the strong digital transformation (ROGERS, 2016). In this case, from the corporate perspective,  Cabral and Yoneyama (2001, p. 45) digital products are those that occupy only virtual physical space, such as information, entertainment, and services. They are supported by digital processes, which involves from the ordering, storage, to downloading, or in other words, the delivery of the digital product. In addition to the product, there is distribution, promotion, and price (marketing mix) so as to make the product marketable.

EMBRAPA-Empresa
In view of the fact that they are intangible, one of the great benefits for developed economies is the exporting of intangible goods, which within the perspective of this article is directly related to Technology, a strategic flag defended by the Barack Obama administration, benefiting technology companies, to the detriment of production companies (factory floor), such as automakers, defended by Donald Trump.

Social Media
According to Kuazaqui, Haddad and Marangoni (2019) such as newspaper and magazine, because they are internet channels and with numerous possibilities for interaction, participation, and control among users. Within this concept are social networks such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp and Youtube, for example and which have made them, in the last decade, the biggest influencers of communities. In short, each social network has its own characteristics that attract different profiles of users and that build groups of relationships that interact with each other and that share the same interests, desires, and experiences. Generally speaking, it is a differentiated form of market segmentation and each social network offers a list of services aimed at facilitating relationships between users, as well as accumulating data and information that serve as references for companies to advertise their business. On the other hand, companies make available on their pages important information that must be constantly monitored by "likes", opinions or even the presence of fake news that influence the perception of their image.

Co-creation
The collaborative economy assumes that a business may suffer the contribution of third parties to its improvement and development, as is the case with Wikipedia. This process undergoes an evolution and revolution with the idea of co-creation. According to Ramaswamy and Ozcan (2014, p. 3) all companies "must be designed as a connector axis of engagement platforms. Their role should be to organize human capacity for all stakeholders to act as co-creators and benefit from the joint creation of values". It is a process where everyone in the Value System participates, so as to develop a business, an idea or even a product in a sustained way. According to the same authors (2014, p. 9), Nike, when developing its footwear, involves studies and analyses of its own, in addition to monitoring athletes who wear their shoes within controlled environments of use. Kickante is a Brazilian crowdfunding platform that aims to receive contributions towards individual projects, usually from people. Interested parties can submit proposals with the guidance of the platform experts to obtain the best volume of resources and for the projects to materialize.

Storytelling and Storyselling
The National Storytelling Network (NSN) (2018) defines storytelling as an ancient form of art and an important manner of human expression used in many ways. It originates from cave drawings and how clans gathered around a campfire to tell and perpetuate history generation to generation. In the context of this chapter, there are two categories for applying storytelling: one can tell a story with a beginning, middle and end through a means such as a post or a video. In this case, one can have a video simulating a family having breakfast and highlighting the brand of a particular product, for example. The second category is inserted within a more complex and contextualized environment, such as the consumer situation of a cosmetic that emphasizes the differential of having politically correct practices and that are also aligned according to the mission and vision of the company.
Storyselling has the direct intention of using a rhetoric that aims to sell something. The stories should involve consumers in a way that they generate positive consequences and relationship bonding. Within the story, the testimony of someone who has already consumed the product, obtained positive experiences, and really solved their problem as a consumer can be used. One realizes that when dealing with digital marketing, it is not enough to have knowledge in information technology, but of all the formats and tools available or to be developed as well.

Marketing 4.0 Challenges and Opportunities
One of the major challenges is digital inclusion, because not everyone has internet access, has interest, as well as the skills to use tools and new technologies. According to a survey conducted by The Economist and Facebook and commented by Meio & Mensagem (2017)

Big Data
More and more companies will have to understand the consumer, from a quantitative point of view and especially a qualitative profile. In this way, research methods and techniques evolve, such as in-depth interviews, Focus Group, and respective data collection instruments. One of the main challenges is to understand how the digital environment influences the consumers of each company, because it involves a set of situations that are not always the object of prediction, as well as being identifiable in the business where the company operates. It is increasingly relevant to discover new ways of collecting and analyzing data, as certified by Ito and Howe (2016). With the reality of information technology and the digital world, we have Big Data which is made up of high-speed data macroflows, with the need for the company to transform them into information that can be used in the decision-making and strategic planning process. One of the best applications refers to consumer knowledge and one of the supports is Digital Analytics, which deals with the interpretations and analysis of digital data for the continuous process of business performance improvements, according to the Digital Analytics Association (2014).
We have four types of data analysis:  Predictive: where prediction is needed, from the analysis of data over time, identifying patterns and justifications of certain behaviors. The analysis allows for the identification and analysis of trends and what types of adjustments could be made.
 Prescriptive: seeks to analyze the information on the consequences of an event. If in predictive we have the forecast, in this we have what types of products and services will be the most demanded, as well as sales models.
 Descriptive: seeks to analyze the present rather than the future, so that decisions are taken more safely and with lower risks.
 Diagnostic: seeks to analyze the relationships between causes and effects, based on the collection of cross-data that aim at understanding the current situation.
Digital evolution has allowed companies to have a greater number of data and information that sustain the decision-making process, make the most assertive decisions, anticipate problems and movements of competitors. Letouzé (2015) comments that one of the main problems is the domain of information by the private sector, which has no interest in sharing with other stakeholders part of the data obtained, thus improving the quality of Big Data. Another problem is that not everyone fully uses mobile devices, frequents or participates in social networks, among others, which serve as a basis for data extraction.
According to Rotella (2012), in a counterpoint to Letouzé , companies should treat data as corporate assets, managing data in their business units, globally and locally. This allows for the sharing of market and product data, generating opportunities for sales, customer retention and cross-selling, for example.
One of the company's biggest challenges is to identify information needed to discover new opportunities, bottlenecks, standards and not only meet current needs. Sometimes situations such as World Cups, the Olympics, Christmas, and New Year's, for example, are segmented situations that sometimes present behaviors that must be identified and analyzed in real time. In general, a combination of analyses types should be used to understand the present, the future, reasons and reactions on the part of the company, within legal and ethical aspects.

Skills
The report of the World Economic Forum (WEF) (2020) presents the technical and personal competencies in development and on the decline, highlighting self-management, team work, emotional intelligence and problem solving, Gramigna, (2004, p. 50), states that competencies can be routinely observed in three other blocks of indicators:  Knowledge (Know), which is related directly to academic training, complements provided by other sources of education and culture, as well as their self-development and learning within the organization.
 Skills (Knowing How to Do), which is in the instrumental application of knowledge in an organized and planned way. In other words, transform in practice, with the due quality, the theoretical knowledge, and sometimes subjective, into actions that effectively, efficiently, and positively meet the different demands according to the expected results.
 Attitudes (The Will to Do), associated with behavior, principles and human values that direct actions positively towards business objectives and goals.
Human and professional skills are shaped and stimulated by endogenous and exogenous factors, many originated from the external environment where the company and professional are inserted.

Research results:
The Focus Group method involved twenty participants, where problematization involved how Big Data influences the digital marketing of companies. As points to be highlighted, it is important, but not  Vol. 8, No. 4, 2020 80 Published by SCHOLINK INC. situation and how they should be applied as strategies.
The experience curve deals with what was accomplished within the limitations of the resources of the company, contextualized with the business environment where it is inserted, and results obtained. More than a simple historical follow-up involving the rebate between revenues, costs and expenses, this curve should reflect the individual and group efforts of the professionals who carried out the actions; how they could be improved in the present, as well as, how the actions could be implemented in order to change the chain of events, which is one of the main premises of strategic planning. Or in other words, how to anticipate the changes and transformations of an exponential world in the sense of being, as a company, integrated into a future environment.
All interviewees believe that the use of digital media and networks by the company as means of communication is fundamental; however, all, once again, were forceful in affirming that digital transformation is still developing and evolving. They state that there are already consolidated metrics and indicators for traditional media, but digital media are still in experience. Nevertheless, being in the digital environment is a matter of survival, citing examples such as social media participation, engagement, and co-creation.
One concern discussed was the ethical issue. Srour (2003, p. 50)  this complexity emphasizes the importance of strategic planning and monitoring the execution of macro and micro strategies, especially considering that the company must have the necessary resilience to identify in advance and overcome barriers and obstacles related to international business.
Many of the business experiences are part of the historical and strategic framework of organizations, having their dissemination either by journalistic communication vehicles or case studies directed to the academic environment, which, in a way, reduces the prospects of a more in-depth discussion on research and results on the subject.

Final Considerations
The world is undergoing frequent changes and transformations and businesses and people must be prepared for current and future challenges. These challenges can become barriers if there is no preparation nor opportunities for all those who have envisioned the future and prepared themselves for the changes and transformations at all levels. Information Technology (IT) has come from being simple tools for simplifying processes and reducing costs to a more active and important position in all economic sectors of society, since it directly influences consumers, their perceptions, their desires for products and services, as well as on the strategies of companies. In addition to consumers, we have all the Value System and respective stakeholders, including raw material suppliers and services, distributors and even the competitors.
There are still no perfect metrics for measuring the influence of technology on the business of the company, because in contrary to traditional marketing, off-line, which is a more long lived Experience Curve, the on-line is still being developed and with few experiences, if compared to the traditional.
However, it is preponderant to understand that its presence and assertive use ensures the sustainability of any business. On the other hand, business strategies are developed by people who must have competencies and skills focused on contributing significantly to the success of the business where they develop their professional activities. In addition, because this is a relatively new and still evolving subject, several discussions should be held, such as whether people should be informed that they are providers of data and information to third parties, as well as the ethical aspects in this obtaining and even applying strategies by companies. The General Law for Data Protection (LGPD) is an advancement; however, its limits and practices are not always carried out. The important thing, as a final consideration, is the need for companies to have the necessary resilience to understand how the market works and how their actions should be developed within the digital environment together with the traditional.