This article brings up so good questions. For discussion here do you think that, excluding the Mega Dealers, the big data lies within the databases of most dealers? And that the main objective of most dealers should be to concentrate on their own market area for trends, Do most dealers have within their own market areas the keys to their marketing success?

Instead of focusing upon the concept of big data, organisations should concentrate on the intelligence data can offer

I'm no fan of big data. In fact, you could say I'm a big data sceptic. That may surprise some people given my current roles, but I'm not alone in having this view.

Writing recently in trade journal Data IQ, Terry Hunt – a modern godfather of data and one of the men behind Tesco Clubcard – had this to say about it: "I don't think you have to be a privacy militant to find this hyper-excitement disturbing, even distasteful … Big in business doesn't really have much of a reputational record. It generally signifies excesses of corporate hubris and the irresponsible exertion of power."

Well said. Of course, there are many practitioners who do see big data as today's most important concept in lots of fields from marketing to crime fighting; not least employees of the group I work for as well as members of the industry trade body I chair.

But let's examine the state of the market before big data caught on. Was it really any different? I don't think so. Marketers have (or should have) used data and insight to target the right consumer, in the right place and at the right time, for decades. Fundamentally, our challenge remains the same: to find the outcomes that make the biggest difference for businesses and customers. Cynics could justifiably claim big data is just another phrase, like customer relationship management before it, coined to make people invest in technology.

In fairness, there is more data now than ever before. Volumes will only grow, along with the population and number of devices organisations can use to connect with people – that's indisputable. There was actually more data created in the past two years than existed up to that point.

So it's not that I don't believe big data exists. I just think we're coming at it from the wrong angle. Organisations are getting too bogged down in worrying about it as a concept in its own right, trying to work out what it is rather than how it can help their business and customers.

In my view we should really be focusing on big answers. We have to be careful we're not spending too long trying to access or manage huge amounts of data, rather than looking at outcomes. To do that, businesses need to concentrate on developing strategies to identify which data is useful among all the information available both internally and externally. If we do that, we'll improve customer engagement while also building efficiency into campaigns.

An example is a recent campaign for GSK that used Facebook and Twitter to help understand consumer attitudes to new flavours of Ribena. The questions were posed online, the social response data analysed to track comments and sentiment and the product marketed as a result of the outcomes. This was a case of trawling the data for answers, which then informed online and local marketing campaigns.

It must be said this isn't just an opportunity for big brands, it's a chance for SMEs to grow, too – particularly locally. Local newspapers, for example, have started mining data to post relevant, local advertising online that is tailored to the individual and advertising extremely local services. A huge opportunity for small businesses to benefit from big data.

Ultimately, small data truly becomes big data when consumers feel it's appropriate to share their details. That's a true value exchange and is best illustrated by revisiting Tesco Clubcard, which has developed the concept to great effect. And, of course, both businesses and consumers need to be mindful of adhering to best practice and ensuring data is handled in the appropriate manner.

So big data, or small data, it is all just data. As long as we focus on the big answers the data can bring, there is a huge source of intelligence waiting to be tapped.

Scott Logie is strategic marketing director at St Ives Group and chairman of the Direct Marketing Association (UK)

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