![]() The good news is that the tools we have today far exceed what anybody could have imagined a generation ago. Rather than acting like traffic cops, directing data flows to predetermined silos of demographic and behavioral characteristics, we should see ourselves as offering a concierge service, assisting and enriching personalized experiences. Marketers need to come to terms with fact that, in a digital world, control has become an illusion. Neiman Marcus isn’t trying to “funnel” you towards a dwindling set of options, nor is it trying to predict your consumer journey and barrage you with messages at predetermined “touch points.” Rather, it is putting you in control of the experience and assisting you as you shop.Īs I noted above, the McKinsey consultants who formulated the consumer decision journey wrote that the goal of marketing is “to reach consumers at the moments that most influence their decisions.” But is that really what we want from the companies who serve us? To focus their efforts on influencing our decisions at times when we are most likely to be compliant? In effect, the system is not trying to target your preferences, but is accompanying you as you shop, intuitively making suggestions much like a salesperson would do in the store. However, as you begin to shop, the selection begins to change based on pattern recognition algorithms. So when you first go to My NM, it gives you a wide range of possibilities. ![]() Or, you could be looking for a present for a friend. For example, if you made a purchase yesterday, you’re probably looking for something different today. After all, what you did last time you were shopping is not a good indicator of what you’re looking for this time. My NM, on the other hand, does very little to predict what your preferences are. More recently, marketers have used online data to more accurately predict customer preferences. Usually a website is engineered to service the typical customer, putting the most popular products front and center. To see how this new approach plays out in the real world, let’s look at an actual example: the My NM feature on Neiman Marcus’s website. This Bayesian approach is opening up worlds of new opportunity. Rather than collect data in intermittent chunks, we can do so continuously and update insights in real time. Yet big data allows us to do things differently. Once a consumer was classified in a certain way, they would essentially be stuck with inferior service. ![]() Finally, because of the time and expense involved in standard surveys, it is almost impossible correct for flawed insights. First of all, it’s extremely time consuming and facts on the ground often change in the time it takes to collect data, analyze it, derive insights and take action based on them.Īnother problem is that the process is highly focused on average behavior, discarding those data points that don’t conform as “outliers” to be ignored. However, more recently it has been called into question for a variety of reasons. They would also use statistical techniques to determine confidence in the results and would routinely reject possibilities that the data didn’t fully support.įor most of the 20th century, this approach to data was considered standard and prudent. They would commission a study, collect data and then analyze the results in order to derive insights. Historically, marketers have sought to understand their consumers through market research. Rather, it points to a fundamental change in how marketers need to think about how they serve their customers. This represent a major shift because it suggests that marketers need to do far more than simply adapt their tactics to take new “touch points” into account. Joelle Kaufman, head of marketing and partnerships for the company told me that a majority of the respondents specifically said that they expected brands to either predict their intent or to learn their behavior and adapt the experience to them. However, what McKinsey’s model doesn’t taken into account is that technology has shifted customer expectations and that has led to a fundamental change in behavior.Ī recent study by BloomReach found that 87% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that are able to personalize experiences the best. These are fair points and there is no shortage of research and metrics, such as net promoter scores, that clearly show how important it is for brands to inspire advocacy among their customers.
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