International Journal of Marketing Studies; Vol. 12, No. 1; 2020 ISSN 1918-719X E-ISSN 1918-7203 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 39 The European Union’s GDPR and Its Effect on Data-Driven Marketing Strategies Fadye Saud Al-Fayad 1 1 Department of Business Administration, Jubail University College, Saudi Arabia Correspondence: Fadye Saud Al-Fayad, P.O.Box 10074 Jubail Industrial City 31961, Saudi Arabia. E-mail: fayad_S@hotmail.com Received: January 15, 2020 Accepted: February 16, 2020 Online Published: February 24, 2020 doi:10.5539/ijms.v12n1p39 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v12n1p39 Abstract This research paper analyzes the developing effect that the European Union’s (EU) recently developed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have on the marketing strategies of firms that rely on big data. Big data is identified as consisting of data and data analytics involving a huge volume of data, a diverse variety of data, and a high velocity of data capture and collection. This analysis begins with some discussion of the concept of big data and follows this up with overviews of both the GDPR and big data use in the marketplace. The EU replaced its older Data Protection Directive or DPD with the GDPR. The GDPR consists of a series of chapters and articles that require, among other things, consent to collect and store data, the anonymization of data, announcement in 72 hours of a data breach, provision of encryption and the identification of a Data Protection Officer. Marketing and the marketing function can implement emergent technologies that augment big data and its analysis while simultaneously achieving compliance with regulatory frameworks like the GDPR. These marketing related solutions are those such as blockchain marketing applications like Brave Browser and Blockstack among others. The report also examines the way in which enterprises use big data in their marketing strategies and how they are affected by it now that it has come into effect. Some of the more marketing-oriented uses and applications of big data are found in sophisticated loyalty programs, demand forecasting and customization either of experience or product/service. This study also offers some final recommendations related to GDPR compliant marketing strategies. These include the development of a comprehensive program to purchase consumer data directly from consumers and the introduction of blockchain as a means to facilitate a smoother transition to GDPR compliance. Keywords: big data, forecasting, social media, blockchain, marketing strategies, privacy protections, European Union 1. Topical Overview This research paper analyzes the developing effect that the European Union’s (EU) recently developed General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will have on the marketing strategies of firms that rely on big data. This analysis begins with some discussion of the concept of big data and follows this up with overviews of both the GDPR and big data use in the marketplace. The subject of the GDPR is given significant attention since it is the central factor in this report. The report also examines the way in which enterprises use big data in their marketing strategies and how they are affected by it now that it has come into effect. The research study concludes with a review of what this study has found and offers some final recommendations related to GDPR compliant marketing strategies. 2. What Is Big Data The concept of big data is an important one in the current digital age. Big data has become so important for both enterprises and consumers because so much data is now generated across virtually every facet of daily life and across the spectrum of business operations. On a technical level, big data has been described as being a series of extensive data sets that are arranged in a scalable type of digital architecture that facilitates the storage, access to and analysis of the data residing within those databases and data warehouses (Aydin, Hallac, & Karakus, 2015). In contrast, other definitions of big data take a volume or scale approach to identifying what big data is as in associating big data with a specific number of gigabytes or terabytes and so forth. However, for the purposes of this report, big data actually requires somewhat of a different approach. This is because in the marketing domain,