Why Marketers Should Care About Weather As Much As Merchants Do

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-relat...