Does Your Marketing Have A
DARK SIDE? 3 Ways To Avoid The Personalization Hall Of Shame
Sponsored by
Executive Brief
INTRODUCTION In today’s omnichannel, digitally connected world, shoppers have access to more
information and products than ever before. As a result, it has become increasingly
challenging for businesses to not only engage customers, but also to win their trust and
46%
lifetime business.
After all, more than half (56%) of consumers claim that the number of brands they
consider has increased significantly over the past 10 years, according to Accenture.
of consumers said they are more likely to switch companies versus 10 years ago.
And up to 46% of consumers said they are more likely to switch companies versus 10 years ago.
To capture attention and dollars, companies are embracing data to create more
relevant marketing campaigns and brand experiences. This data also helps create the personalized campaigns that shoppers crave. Nearly two-thirds (60%) of consumers say they want to receive personalized real-time offers and specials.
However, consumers’ overall response to personalization is a moving target. They consider
– Accenture, Global Consumer Pulse Research Report
certain tactics desperate — or even worse, creepy. In fact, 69% of consumers find the way some companies use personal information to be creepy. Even more consumers (90%) say that they prefer to do business with companies that respect user privacy.
So how can marketers understand customers’ boundaries and create omnichannel marketing campaigns that are compelling and relevant without invading their trust and privacy?
While planning and building their campaigns, marketers should take into account the
lessons learned from the Personalization Hall Of Shame, a group of businesses that found egg on their faces because they pushed the boundaries of data usage a little too far.
This brief will uncover some of these marketing faux pas, and will reveal how you can avoid the Personalization Hall Of Shame!
Are you a marketing goody two-shoes or are you walking on the dark side?
TAKE THIS QUICK QUIZ to find out whether your campaigns are successful or just plain creepy!
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 2
TARGET SPECIFIC SEGMENTS AND CUSTOMERS, BUT CREATE OFFERS THAT TRULY MATTER! The Personalization Hall Of Shame: In an effort to boost sales, a
supermarket served Facebook ads for a buy-in-bulk discount on ice cream to female consumers who recently changed their marital status to "single."
Lessons Learned: Regardless of category, retailers of all sizes use offers and
incentives to boost traffic and sales. And consumers appreciate the opportunity to save
Although having data about your customer is helpful, sometimes that data doesn’t always lead to an effective or relevant offer.
money on their favorite products. When asked to pinpoint what they like most about personalization, 64% of consumers said they enjoyed having access to exclusive deals and automatic crediting for coupons and loyalty points.
However, it is imperative that businesses not only craft offers that are relevant to
customers, but also serve them through the right channels at the right time. Although
having data about your customer is helpful, sometimes that data doesn’t always lead to an effective or relevant offer. Look at the above company as a strong example: There
is no way to verify that all single consumers want to buy items in bulk. Each person has a unique preference. Moreover, their total number of shopping trips per week and the
variety of brands they use can vary extensively. Instead, focus on the data you do have about customers to make informed decisions about marketing messages and offers. Using solutions like QuickTarget, QuickPivot’s cloud database, businesses have
access to an underlying architecture designed to support a vast volume and variety of data points, helping marketers create a 360-degree view of customers. Having this comprehensive picture will help marketers better understand behaviors and preferences, and empower them to craft more intelligent campaigns.
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 3
PERSONALIZATION IS IMPERATIVE, BUT RESPECT CONSUMERS’ PRIVACY The Personalization Hall Of Shame: Based on analysis of a female
consumer’s buying habits, a big-box retailer sent her offers related to pregnancy and baby care products. Despite the fact that the customer did not intend to disclose
88%
the pregnancy to either the retailer or household members, other residents within the household eventually discovered the offers in the mail.
Lessons Learned: Although this retailer definitely succeeded in personalizing
offers for a specific customer, this is a great example of “Just because you can use
data, doesn’t mean you should.” There is a clear distinction between creating exclusive and valuable offers for customers and being intrusive.
Best-in-class marketers can use data mining to understand customer buying patterns,
of shoppers want control over how retailers use their data. – Accenture, Accenture Personalization Survey
brand preferences and offer redemption habits. With this data, they can create strong
hypotheses regarding the types of coupons and messages that specific shoppers are more likely to use.
Nowadays, consumers understand that to receive personalized offers and experiences, they need to share some information about themselves. Half of consumers say they
want retailers to use data to create a better overall experience, and 49% want them to use data for post-purchase marketing.
However, 88% of people say they want control over how their data is used. These
findings confirm that marketers need to strike a careful balance: They need to embrace
data to craft more intelligent campaigns, but they also need to be more transparent and communicate to consumers how they’re using their data. When it comes to sensitive
information such as marital status, family status or health information, marketers need to tread lightly or they may risk damaging their brand’s reputation and diminishing customer trust.
Marketers that need additional insight and best practices should seek guidance from solution providers that offer tactical support and strategic services. QuickPivot, for
example, measures buying behavior and provides data enrichment to align content and
channel usage to deliver compelling and engaging omnichannel customer experiences.
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 4
EMBRACE USER-GENERATED CONTENT ACROSS CHANNELS, BUT MAKE SURE YOU WIN THE OPT-IN FIRST!
Millennials find user generated content
The Personalization Hall Of Shame: A designer and manufacturer of
inexpensive "knock-off" dresses created a webpage collage of bad prom dresses
35%
posted on Facebook. The company then created a series of social media posts based on this collage.
Lessons Learned: User-generated (UGC) content such as ratings, reviews and even images can help companies engage customers and even inspire them to make purchase decisions.
more memorable than other types of media and trust it 50% more.
Millennials especially have grown to love & trust UGC: They find it 35% more memorable than other types of media and trust it 50% more. Consumers also have an increased desire to create and share content. Every minute, Pinterest users pin 3,472 images,
Instagram users post 216,000 photos and Facebook users share up to 2.5 million pieces
– Crowdtap, Millenials Love UGC
of content. That’s a lot of potential creative for your marketing campaigns.
When used successfully, UGC can improve campaign relevancy across all channels,
and put a more personal face on a brand. But before marketers use or share any form of UGC across channels, they need to have permission to do so.
The key issue with the above example is that the merchant’s team evidently scoured
social media to find these images. Even worse: They published the photos without the owners’ consent and publicly shamed them.
A better approach would be to solicit third-party content from your social friends and
followers, saying that if they give permission to share images, they would be included
in an upcoming campaign. Most of the time, consumers are thrilled to participate if they are given credit.
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 5
Once you get permission to use this content, you can leverage it across a variety of
channels, from social networks to email campaigns. With a cross-channel marketing platform, you can use customer and buying behavior data to align content and channel usage.
Platforms like QuickPivot are designed to store and update all customer data, host all
content and support all channels. The system automates decisions so that all customers receive the images, messages and experiences they want, when they want and wherever they are.
The Personalization Hall Of Shame:
When used successfully, UGC can improve campaign relevancy across all channels, and put a more personal face on a brand.
See what other businesses went just a tad too far in their marketing campaigns and strategies.
• Several fashion brands implemented mannequins equipped with technology
designed to identify consumers and track their behaviors. Cameras embedded
in the mannequins panned in on passers-by, logging their age, gender and race, and fed this data into facial-recognition software.
• One well-known department store retailer received complaints when it
tested new technology to track customer movements by following smartphone Wi-Fi signals. Data aggregated from the experiment would be used to better understand customer buying patterns and overall traffic in stores.
• A photo printing and merchandise company sent a targeted email to
consumers, congratulating them on their new baby and encouraging them to
browse through its selection of thank-you cards. Sadly, most recipients didn’t
even have kids! The campaign was the result of a segmentation error: Rather than
sending the message to a list of consumers who purchased birth announcements, it went to a much larger database.
• A popular children’s toy manufacturer created a new doll that would record kids’ voices. The audio would then be decoded so the doll could deliver an
appropriate response. However, these audio recordings also were sent back to
corporate so team members could garner intelligence about how the product was performing. The manufacturer also admitted that the recordings could be shared with parents and even third parties.
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 6
CONCLUSION It’s an incredibly exciting time for marketers. They have so much data readily available,
and there are myriad tools and solutions available to help them successfully aggregate, analyze and leverage this data in their campaigns.
Despite the new possibilities, marketers need to remember that it only takes one foul move to leave them in the Personalization Hall Of Shame!
As you continue to plan and execute campaigns, remember: • Leverage customer and behavioral data to better understand wants, needs and preferences.
• Be wary of the type of data you use and how you use it. For example, using a
Despite the new possibilities, marketers need to remember that it only takes one foul move to leave them in the Personalization Hall Of Shame!
customer’s birthday is a safer bet than using marital status.
• If you decide to use social content for future campaigns, make sure your consumers grant permission.
With the right tools and best practices in place, you’ll be able to use your marketing for good, not evil.
Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 7
ABOUT QUICKPIVOT
Data, Decisions, Content, Channels – All In One Platform 33 Arch Street, 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02110 P: 617.880.4000
[email protected]
QuickPivot provides award-winning multi-channel marketing software and a comprehensive
portfolio of strategic services. The QuickPivot platform stores and updates all customer data, hosts all content, supports all channels, and automates decisions so that every customer gets what they want, when they want it, wherever they are.
The QuickPivot interface is remarkably easy to use. QuickTarget, QuickPivot’s SaaS cloud
database, provides massive scale at modest cost, and the underlying architecture is designed to support an incredible volume and variety of customer data to provide a 360 degree view of
the customer. Non-technical resources can segment data, and perform sophisticated analysis
with just a few clicks…with results delivered in seconds regardless of segmentation complexity. Program Palette, QuickPivot’s award-winning planning tool for building and deploying customer lifecycle programs, eliminates 50-70% of the clutter associated with traditional workflow tools. Our intuitive program flows accelerate acceptance from all company stakeholders as well as
campaign configuration and launch. And rounding out the platform is a rich reporting and data
visualization capability that constantly helps marketers make sense of KPI results so that the next action is always clear.
To augment our platform, QuickPivot also provides tactical support and strategic services to clients. We provide insight through measurement of buying behavior and data enrichment,
aligning content and channel usage to deliver compelling and engaging omnichannel customer experiences. QuickPivot’s analysis of demographic traits, channel usage and buying habits of
high-value customers, also identifies areas for marketing efficiency and cost savings thru better database segmentation and targeting.
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Does Your Marketing Have A DARK SIDE? • 8
