MarTech Thoughts | Victoria White
For some industry sectors, consumer accessibility after the pandemic is still likely to be several months away. What’s your recommendation on using digital outreach and communication to consumers for these brands at the moment?
For some companies, maintaining relevance is a critical challenge at this time, especially when it may be months before consumers are seriously considering their next purchase. For instance in the travel, concerts, arts, sports and certain retail sectors. Brands may risk customer fatigue with too many digital communications when consumers are not in a position to make immediate purchases. One answer may be to consider cross-collaborations with brands in other sectors that are experiencing high customer demand at the moment. Brands need to be agile and adapt their business model to the current circumstance, rather than waiting for a return to the old norm.
AI-driven marketing based on customers’ past preferences has seen exponential growth in the past year. But, with consumers’ needs, budgets and likes all significantly changed after the pandemic, to what extent do we need to throw away previous customer data and start afresh now?
There is certainly a risk in over-reliance on historical data, which cannot factor in the seismic changes we have seen in consumer behaviour during the past year.
Covid-19 can be seen as a watershed in some data pools. It depends on the industry and the extent to which the impact of the pandemic has affected operations, consumer sentiment and purchasing opportunities. I think it’s helpful to implement data sets based on the medium term and short term for a more balanced analysis. There are new trends developing out of the post-Covid environment. These need to be identified and monitored independently to see if they are just temporary, or here to stay.