Good decisions don’t always need to be driven by data

At the Association of National Advertisers Masters of Marketing Conference, Ken Wheaton writes he heard a McDonald’s representative say the decision to add all-day breakfast was prompted by social media data — but consumers have been asking for all-day breakfast in more informal ways for decades, without data collected by McDonald’s. While data can be powerful and instrumental in making good business decisions, Wheaton writes, “does not mean that everything has to be data related. Sometimes you just have a good idea. Sometimes your gut — or even your boring old human brain — does lead you in the right direction.”