K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
If you work in marketing, you know this already: We’re all drowning in data. It’s a maelstrom of fast-changing consumer profiles, fragmented media impressions and very diverse business outcomes. Over the years, we’ve come up with numerous water metaphors for customer data management, from data streams to data islands and data lakes. It makes it seem very peaceful, but the reality is much more chaotic. It’s a deluge, and data is spilling over the levees.
While that’s happening, consumers are also gaining tools to stand up for themselves: ad-blocking technology, paid subscriptions and, perhaps most importantly, robust privacy protections.
Does that mean that the marketing industry should pack it in and revert to the way things were before the digital era? Absolutely not. The pressure of using data to accommodate major shifts has created important breakthroughs before: market segmentation, marketing mix, customer lifetime value and eventually cross-channel attribution. I think we’ve reached another one of those key transitions. But before I reveal what it is, let me offer some context.
Data Chaos: A Four-Headed Monster
To carve a path forward, it’s important to first understand that data chaos today is a four-headed monster:
• Data quality: Much of the data in your customer relationship management (CRM) platform is likely incomplete. Wharton professor Peter Fader described the situation in these terms: “If you’re going to be customer-centric, CRM is a really critical step ... Unfortunately, CRM has taken on a life of its own. Instead of it being just a tool that helps you achieve customer centricity, it becomes a massive system — or set of systems — that gets embedded in a company and becomes a huge operational challenge.” And that was 10 years ago.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/01/24/data-chaos-is-a-four-headed-monster-how-can-marketers-vanquish-it/?sh=27381a527100
While that’s happening, consumers are also gaining tools to stand up for themselves: ad-blocking technology, paid subscriptions and, perhaps most importantly, robust privacy protections.
Does that mean that the marketing industry should pack it in and revert to the way things were before the digital era? Absolutely not. The pressure of using data to accommodate major shifts has created important breakthroughs before: market segmentation, marketing mix, customer lifetime value and eventually cross-channel attribution. I think we’ve reached another one of those key transitions. But before I reveal what it is, let me offer some context.
Data Chaos: A Four-Headed Monster
To carve a path forward, it’s important to first understand that data chaos today is a four-headed monster:
• Data quality: Much of the data in your customer relationship management (CRM) platform is likely incomplete. Wharton professor Peter Fader described the situation in these terms: “If you’re going to be customer-centric, CRM is a really critical step ... Unfortunately, CRM has taken on a life of its own. Instead of it being just a tool that helps you achieve customer centricity, it becomes a massive system — or set of systems — that gets embedded in a company and becomes a huge operational challenge.” And that was 10 years ago.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2022/01/24/data-chaos-is-a-four-headed-monster-how-can-marketers-vanquish-it/?sh=27381a527100
