IBM recently bought The Weather Company, which includes consumer brands The Weather Channel and Weather Underground. In conferring with IBM’s Harriet Green, General Manager, Watson Internet of Things, Commerce and Education, IBM, I asked her why. Her response was interesting. She said that while marketers are experts at combining market, competitor, and consumer insight to create superior marketing plans, they have largely ignored “the weather.” And yet she suggested that including weather-related data into analyses can help marketers become more influential and effective.

As a former CMO within the retailing industry, this claim interested me. While merchants regularly talked about how weather patterns negatively impact sales, I will admit that the thought of using weather-related data to impact future marketing plans intrigued me. To generate more insight on the topic, I followed up with Green and Paul Walsh, the VP Weather Analytics from The Weather Company. Below are their thoughts.

from Forbes – Tech http://ift.tt/2eHIzUl
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