Tag Archives for " consumer "

Four Trends Driving the Future of Consumer Identity

 

Data privacy and consumer identity have been topics of conversation in the ad tech industry for a long time now. With the widespread use of the internet and the desire for companies to be more transparent with their motives, consumers are getting smarter about how their data is gathered online.

 

This new insight has sparked countless debates over what resources are and aren’t acceptable for companies to use and has led to big-name platforms, such as Apple and Google redefining their privacy policies.

Advertisers are able to reach consumers in new and meaningful ways with so many online channels at their disposal. However, the promise of value-based advertising has fallen short, with several voices calling for changes to the way consumer identity data is handled.

Trends such as consumer action, privacy regulations, the abolishment of third-party cookies, and the rise of the walled garden have all contributed to the rapidly changing landscape of the ad tech industry, and have made it important for companies to innovate their data and identity strategies.

There are currently four trends driving the future of consumer identity that marketing professionals should keep top of mind as they continue improving the brand/consumer relationship:

 

The Consumer is More Than a Participant

With so many data-driven insights comes the tendency for brands to shift away from human-based marketing and instead of seeing consumers as cookies, cohorts and user IDs.

By taking data gathered from consumers to best target them based on their personal wants and needs, companies hope to connect with their audience in more relevant ways.

While the average consumer values personalized marketing, they’re getting much smarter in their ability to recognize what’s truly valuable and what’s simply noise.

As consumer behavior changes, brands must shift towards a conversation-based approach instead of seeing consumer engagement as an end goal to be reached.

With the introduction of AI-based technologies comes the eagerness to automate consumer processes. Brands should be careful in taking this approach. Simply automating all processes can take away the dynamic and responsive aspects of marketing that consumers have come to value.

Instead, companies looking to evolve with consumer wants should be integrating AI with pre-existing ideas of human creativity and intelligence to bring to life answers to the questions consumers search for.

Implementing a creative ad tech system helps to streamline and automate across the creative process, allowing brands to marry large-scale personalization with consumer wants and needs.

Due to the boom of social media, consumers can connect with brands at various touchpoints across the customer journey.

Instead of a blanket advertising approach, brands must take into account the fact that the vast majority of consumers are likely to make a purchase from a brand that puts effort into personalized marketing.

Utilizing a creative personalization solution has the power to create 1:1 personalized experiences at the level the market has grown to demand.

 

Navigating Consumer Identity Privacy

The momentum around consumer privacy regulations has grown in recent years. Privacy regulations such as CCPA and GDPR require the consent of users and a designated opt-out policy and give consumers the right to demand their data be corrected if inaccurate.

Ultimately, these laws require brands to be transparent about how they collect, use and share customer information, bringing even more attention to how consumer data is being handled.

Brands need to take a proactive approach toward data privacy in order to avoid serious consequences.

Identity solutions, such as LiveRamp’s RampID and Unified ID 2.0 (an open-source ID framework using consumers’ anonymized email addresses gathered from a user logging into a website or app), offer brands a way to personalize communications with their audiences across all media channels while still adhering to privacy regulations via acquired consent.

Identity and consumer privacy will continue to be major themes across the industry for years to come. Combining data-driven identifiers with creative automation platforms allows companies to set themselves up for long-term success.

They must ensure that they’re still meeting consumers at the right places with the right messaging with privacy in mind.

 

Cookie and Device ID Deprecation

Consumers have been standing up to demand more fairness and transparency for their privacy online. Browsers and device manufacturers have also been on the same page.

With Google’s decision to moving away from third-party cookies (now delayed until 2023) and Apple integrating key privacy changes into their iOS 14.5, players in the direct-to-consumer market are creating big disruptions in the data-driven advertising space.

The industry is quickly pivoting from a world of ubiquitous consumer data to one where it’s significantly more controlled, managed and safeguarded.

These changes leave brands little choice but to turn away from traditional advertising methods and find new ways to harness consumer data, such as first-party cookies through privacy-compliant technologies.

Companies should keep in mind that traditional use cases for third-party cookies won’t simply disappear, but will instead evolve.

By maxing out the value of first-party data to effectively personalize experiences for consumers, brands will be in a better position to ride out these changes and evolve with the industry.

These changes may seem daunting to an industry that has depended on third-party cookies and device ID methods for decades, but a shift towards first-party data offers an opportunity for companies to take a step back and really dig into their personalization strategies to best optimize their consumer relationships.

 

Walled Garden vs. Open Web

The walled garden ecosystem is growing rapidly as big players such as Amazon and Facebook erect walls to protect their data and assets.

These walled gardens are incredibly disruptive to the future of data-driven advertising, as they block the gathering of data from any outside advertisers.

There has been conversation around publishers and ad tech companies banding around a new unified ID, however, it’s too soon to tell whether these efforts will be fruitful.

According to a 2020 Harris Poll, online users spend 66% of their time on the open web, and 34% behind walled gardens.

However, the open web-only accounts for 40% of total ad spend, whereas 60% of brands are putting their money behind walled gardens in the hopes of reaching more consumers.

For publishers and marketers to survive this large-scale shift of content to closed ecosystems, companies need to improve their first-party data and bolster their direct relationships with consumers instead of relying on platforms such as Google and Facebook to connect them.

 

Between You and Me

Advertisers who have consistently viewed cookies as the end-all-be-all for personalization tactics are going to have to get smart about their next move.

Respecting consumers’ desire for privacy, shifting to a first-party data strategy and recognizing customers as more than just a one-size-fits-all audience are all great steps towards creating a trusted, lasting brand.

There’s plenty of opportunity for outside-the-box solutions if only companies are willing to take the leap.

 

The post-Four Trends Driving the Future of Consumer Identity appeared first on Content Marketing Consulting and Social Media Strategy.

Source: convinceandconvert.com

Five Questions for the Thinaire Platform

Ever since I was involved in developing a mobile application myself, I have gained an undue fascination with mobile application platforms – also known as, “why bother building all the component pieces, when they should be a solved problem?”

The retail space is no exception, as stores feel they need to get onto the mobile bandwagon but can to easily end up reinventing the wheel without feeling the potential benefits.

Solving this is not as simple as it seems – retailers want to be customer-focused without becoming creeoptimize want to optimize their interactions and grow loyalty without unnecessary intrusion; as they look to become more effective and efficient, they want to learn by doing, but their well-meant efforts can become expensive dead-ends.

It’s too easy to blow the budget before achieving the goals, even if these are known at the outset.

Faced with such dilemmas, the availability of a platform of components for ‘smarter’ retail would appear to be a boon.

So, what gives?

I had an email exchange with Thinaire CEO, Mike Ventimiglia, to find out more.

 

1. In the face of an increasingly diverse pool of “smart” retail solutions, what is the problem Thinaire sets out to solve?

For far too many retailers, a customer that doesn’t have their branded app, and isn’t logged in, is essentially invisible.

On top of that, when we ask retailers about the penetration rates of their apps, we generally get numbers well under 10%, which is frighteningly low.

That’s often where the conversation with Thinaire starts: our technologies dramatically lower the effort required by consumers to access the full range of smarter retail solutions.

Whether it’s fine-grained location data driving product positioning, advanced loyalty programs, shelf-talkers, unattended retail, or all of the above and more, Thinaire reduces friction, simplifies delivery, and derives meaningful data at every stage of the customer journey.

In many cases, Thinaire is able to deliver measurably better retail experiences with no requirement for an app, and we offer a range of no-CAPEX options if there is any infrastructure required to support any particular deployment.

 

2. What consumer demographics are driving the need for digitally oriented solutions?

We know that under 25’s spend, on average, 9 hours per day curating their digital selves, and other cohorts are not far behind.

Everyone demands that their smart device intercedes with the real world for them!

This data signals, among other things, a massive and growing demand for content to support each individual’s “personal brand.”

So retail brands that frictionlessly deliver images, video, offers, experiences, etc. aligned with customers’ “personal brands.”

This will generate a large pool of passionate advocates by making authentic personal recommendations, and hence building their brands concurrently.

 

3. And meanwhile, what kinds of efficiency savings can be had by smarter use of in-store technology?

The future of retail is either extremely high-touch or no-touch. In other words, fully digitally connected, personalized immersive experiences, or simply “get out of my way” unattended.

To realize efficiencies from “high-touch,” cycle time is absolutely key.

So technology that already knows who you are and what you want before you’re even in the retail space (for example) can powerfully assist in delivering a faster turnaround.

Thinaire’s “virtual loyalty” technologies are deployed to provide exactly this capability.

The drivers of “no-touch” are quite different.

For these applications, Thinaire’s technologies are put to use (for example) replacing expensive and failure-prone kiosks, with simpler, cheaper, faster all-screen units more responsive to the customer’s smart device by leveraging the device’s own capabilities.

4. How ‘digitally ready’ does an organization have to be to adopt solutions such as Thinaire?

Our customers range from digital natives to analog high-touch retailers taking their first steps in digital by customer demand.

Our ability to deploy both the hardware and the software required for even the most complex requirement means we are truly “full service.”

On the other hand, if the customer just wants smarter sensors to pour quality data into their digitally-aware CRM, we can do that too.

5. How are things going to evolve in the next 3-5 years would you say?

There’s a wonderful video on YouTube of a 3-year-old interacting with a printed photograph.

She attempts to make it zoom by pinching her fingers, and then immediately hands it to Mommy, insisting “It’s broken!”

Of course, given her expectations of how photos work on her parent’s devices, for her, it really is broken!

That’s a metaphor for the next 3-5 years in retail.

Retailers that don’t meet consumer expectations by leveraging all the capabilities of customer’s smart devices will be seen by those same customers as “broken.”

 

My Take: People will always buy, but how?

The retail industry, which has often been cited as slow to the digital revolution party, is seeing the world change beneath its feet.

While retail organizations may be seen as the blocker, if the problem was so simple to solve, most retailers would have changed by now.

But simply saying “you need to think omnichannel,” or “how about digital transformation,” comes up against issues of integration, of supply chain complexity, and of a fast-moving environment which cannot afford to stop for a day, never mind the weeks required to make a sustainable difference.

Technology can obviously help, particularly pre-tested platforms of functionality such as Thinaire.

Few startups are building from scratch, but generally, they target a specific problem whereas major retailers have to cover all their bases.

Meanwhile, the number of retail, marketing, and advertising technology providers continues to proliferate, increasing the pressure to succeed at the same time as reducing clarity on the viable options.

Nonetheless, the starting point has to be a recognition that retailers cannot go it alone, but need to rely on a technology platform.

There is simply no time to re-invent the wheel: using pre-built capabilities, retailers can learn more quickly about the needs of their customers, their stores, their offerings, and their processes.

Failing fast, improving, and then succeeding has to be a better option than just failing.

Source: gigaom.com

Five questions for… the Thinaire platform

Ever since I was involved in developing a mobile application myself, I have gained an undue fascination with mobile application platforms – also known as, “why bother building all the component pieces, when they should be a solved problem?”

The retail space is no exception, as stores feel they need to get onto the mobile bandwagon but can to easily end up reinventing the wheel without feeling the potential benefits.

Solving this is not as simple as it seems – retailers want to be customer-focused without becoming creepy.

They want to optimize their interactions and grow loyalty without unnecessary intrusion.

As they look to become more effective and efficient, they want to learn by doing, but their well-meant efforts can become expensive dead-ends.

It’s too easy to blow the budget before achieving the goals, even if these are known at the outset.

Faced with such dilemmas, the availability of a platform of components for ‘smarter’ retail would appear to be a boon.

So, what gives? I had an email exchange with Thinaire CEO, Mike Ventimiglia, to find out more.

 

5 Questions for Thinaire Platform:

 

My Take: People will always buy, but how?

The retail industry, which has often been cited as slow to the digital revolution party, is seeing the world change beneath its feet.

While retail organizations may be seen as the blocker, if the problem was so simple to solve, most retailers would have changed by now.

But simply saying “you need to think omnichannel,” or “how about digital transformation,” comes up against issues of integration, of supply chain complexity, and of a fast-moving environment which cannot afford to stop for a day, never mind the weeks required to make a sustainable difference.

Technology can obviously help, particularly pre-tested platforms of functionality such as Thinaire.

Few startups are building from scratch, but generally, they target a specific problem whereas major retailers have to cover all their bases.

Meanwhile, the number of retail, marketing, and advertising technology providers continues to proliferate, increasing the pressure to succeed at the same time as reducing clarity on the viable options.

Nonetheless, the starting point has to be a recognition that retailers cannot go it alone, but need to rely on a technology platform.

There is simply no time to re-invent the wheel: using pre-built capabilities, retailers can learn more quickly about the needs of their customers, their stores, their offerings, and their processes.

Failing fast, improving, and then succeeding has to be a better option than just failing.

Source: gigaom.com