Question $1(25$ Marks$)$Read the article below and answer the following questions.$$A New World of Consumer Behavior is Emerging$$By Gary Drenik$$As we enter into a new world of consumer behavior, enterprises are finding that they must keep up with constantly changing consumer preferences to win in their respective industries. With unpredictable market conditions, and a possible recession looming, consumers are looking to spend only on the goods they truly need. $$Additionally$,$ they look to save time by spending less time in stores and shopping more online, as we move towards a more hybrid lifestyle of the digital and physical world. No longer bound by traditional norms, people are exploring new options for how they live and interact with the world. This has led to rapid change in a variety of industries, causing businesses to struggle to keep up with shifting demands. To remain competitive, companies must understand and adapt to these changes.$$In the business world, however, getting the data to track changes in consumer behavior from data is not always simple. There are many players in the data intelligence industry, but most don$$t offer global, high$-$quality data in a single platform. We caught up with Anil Mathews, founder, and CEO of Near, a global leader in privacy$-$led data intelligence, which curates and manages one of the world$$s largest collections of intelligence and insights on people, places, and products. Near's platform draws information from unique users and their behavior from over $70$ million places across $44+$ countries. Anil shares how we have entered a whole new world of consumer behavior, and how data intelligence can help enterprises meet consumer demand to ultimately win against competitors.$$Gary Drenik: How is consumer behavior changing and how can business leaders get their arms around a world of constant change?$$Anil Mathews: As the post$-$pandemic world rapidly evolves, consumer behavior continues to change constantly at a faster rate. Behaviors that were once normal for most people, such as grocery shopping, were replaced with delivery services overnight, and have since bounced back to the $$new normal$$ with many people adopting a more fluid, hybrid approach. For e$.$g$.$ recent gas price shocks caused $64\%$ of Americans to change their driving habits, according to AAA. Almost all industries have been challenged by this rapid change and must evolve to survive. Another impacted industry is restaurants $$ the pandemic forced them to innovate and evolve quickly. In a recent Near report, The New World of Consumer Behavior: Restaurants $2022,$ results unveiled that there is no longer one single dining experience and showed that restaurants must adapt to the new range of options and conveniences that consumers have come to expect, or risk facing a business loss. Additionally, a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey found that $32\mathrm{.}8\%$ of Adults, $18+$ are shopping in stores less, pointing to the need to have both a physical and digital presence to meet customers where they are.$$Prosper $-$ Changing Shopping Behaviors$$Business leaders can get their arms around this world of constant change by not making business decisions based solely on anecdotal evidence, past performance, or gut instincts. Today, business leaders must take a data$-$driven approach to understand how to react to changing consumer behavior patterns. In the last few years, we$$ve seen an accelerated adoption of human movement data which enables businesses to better understand their customers and their competitors. $$It$$s become table stakes for understanding consumers. With data that is able to connect the digital and physical world, business leaders can strategize in the face of adversity, and make sure they don$$t fall behind. Those business leaders who use a data intelligence platform will be best positioned against their competitors and maximize business results for the best. Put simply, data drives better strategic business decisions.$$Drenik: What are the biggest data challenges to the world's leading enterprises today?$$Mathews: The most significant data challenge for today$$s leading global enterprises is threefold: having the ability to bring together data from both the digital and physical worlds at a global scale, overcoming incomplete or inaccurate customer data, and unlocking digital intelligence using AI$/$ML$-$driven modeling. Solving these problems can enable enterprises to act on their data across multiple channels and measure the results. The problem we$$ve seen first$-$hand is that to achieve this, enterprises often seek out multiple vendors, varying across departments, leading to data silos and confusion about governance.$$Drenik: How can businesses learn more about their consumers and target customers?$$Mathews: In order to learn more about their customers, busineses have two choices $$ rely on their own incomplete and scattered customer data, or partner with a company that can help improve their view of customers. Business