Is Retail Ready for RFID?
Many marketing departments are simply not ready to cope with the torrent of information let loose by RFID (radio-frequency identification)—that's the conclusion strongly suggested by a working paper by three researchers at the University of Dublin's School of Business Studies.
After surveying and interviewing marketing staff at four successful retailers, three of them major multi-nationals, they found:
The study showed that marketers feel that they cannot cope with their current information systems, and would struggle with anything more advanced such as RFID. In three out of four cases, marketers actually admitted to ignoring much of the data and failing to meticulously evaluate what was crucial. Secondly, the study confirmed that marketers continue to misunderstand how technologies such as RFID could be of assistance to them. Thirdly, the study highlighted the general ignorance of marketers with regard to RFID, with three out of the four companies admitting to have never even heard of it. Most worrying was the fact that in the case of two of these companies, RFID trial runs had already been carried out in some of their stores in the UK.... In summary, our exploratory study indicates a surprisingly low level of sophistication.
Four companies is not a trend. But it should give CIOs struggling with RFID or other advanced technologies some solace that they aren't alone in their troubles, and it should give other CIOs plenty of reason to be concerned. Their marketing staff could be having as difficult a time with IT as the ones at these companies. And it certainly lends credence to marketing experts, like Wharton professor Peter Fader, who say we're overwhelming marketers with data.
"Too Much Data, Too Little Information: The Challenges of RFID Implementation"
Mairead Brady, Martin Fellenz, Corinne Armstrong, University of Dublin - School of Business Studies
Available at the Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
