Page 12 - AeM_July_2019

RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Why your brand needs a centralized

customer data platform

Rather than waiting for people to find products, brands Indeed, an Econsultancy survey commissioned by
are now matching products to the people. Resulticks confirmed the importance of housing
customer data in a central location accessible by all
Consider this hypothetical example: Beats by Dre targets teams. The survey, which analyzed the omnichannel
Peter, a 30-year-old marathon runner, with ads for a pair readiness of enterprise businesses across Southeast
of runner-friendly headphones even though he hasn’t Asia, found that one of the factors that separate
specifically searched for that product. Instead, the brand omnichannel ‘leaders’ from the ‘laggards’ in the region
found him by leveraging data from disparate sources like is the use of a centralized data platform – 92 percent of
website visits and marathon sign-ups. leaders reported using one, versus 82 percent of
laggards, who are using disparate data systems.
Some of the world’s leading advertisers, such as Netflix,
Amazon and Sephora, already use the power of What’s more, data management is where many of the
customer data and sophisticated personalization survey respondents said they struggled most when
techniques to drive business results in this way. implementing omnichannel practices – 38 percent cited
integration across systems as being poor, while 30
Sephora, for example, has leveraged its wealth of percent said they were unable to act on data in real
customer data to personalize end-to-end user journeys. time.
By integrating customer data into its website and
application platforms, the beauty purveyor uses By using a central platform, the entire business can see
customers’ past purchases to predict their interests and all customers’ data throughout their purchasing journey.
future purchases. This unification of online and offline This insight will eventually enable a business to gain
customer data provides a seamless, personalized the coveted 360-degree view of its customers.
experience that has led to a six-fold return on investment Business can then begin to deploy personalized
for the beauty brand, according to Dynamic Yield. campaigns at scale and engage with customers down
to an individual, segment-of-one level in a more
Depending on who you ask, personalization has the authentic manner – and, eventually, in real time.
power to lift revenue from 5 percent to 15 percent and
can increase the efficiency of marketing spend by 10 For those brands grappling with data and tech
percent to 30 percent. But, delivering personalization at challenges, starting out with personalization does not
scale requires a combination of the right data and the hinge on the existence of a centralized platform.
right technology. Businesses can still work with the data and capabilities
on hand now to begin reaching and engaging with
customers on an individual level.

12 July 2019 - Multichannel Marketing, Mobile & Video Marketing