Consumers today are more than just consumers: they have more ways to collaborate, share information, and influence the opinions of their friends and peers, and the data they create in doing so have significant value to businesses. Unlike structured data, which are generated from events such as completing a purchase transaction, unstructured data have no distinct form. Nevertheless, managers believe such data may offer unique insights into customer behavior and attitudes that were much more difficult to determine years ago.
For example, in 2007, JetBlue experienced unprecedented levels of customer discontent in the wake of a February ice storm that resulted in widespread flight cancellations and planes stranded on Kennedy Airport runways. The airline received 15,000 e-mails per day from customers during the storm and immediately afterwards, up from its usual daily volume of 400. The volume was so much larger than usual that JetBlue had no simple way to read everything its customers were saying.