A strategy by any other name..........Consumer centric marketing

Call it what you want.....consumer-focused marketing, data-driven marketing, relationship marketing, it all comes down to three simple things, 1. making a connection with the consumer 2. Adding value and 3. becoming part of their daily routine. Within those three parts are a number of opportunities (aka challenges) to accomplishing all three. This is all part of getting to know them better and how to become part of their daily life.

Think about iconic brands like Coke, QTip, Scott Towell.....I use those names because they are synonymous with the products they represent. How many times lately have you asked for a cotton-tipped swab for your ear or found yourself hearing the ever familiar "we don't have Coke, only Pepsi" from a waitress. These brand names have become integrated into our routines and culture.

So how do you get to that result? I am not saying there is a shortcut. Those brands spent decades building brand recognition and spending millions to be in front of people all the time. But those were the good old days without data and the only option was to spend lots, cast a wide net and hope for the best. Times have certainly changed in some ways for the better and for the worse.

The good news is it is much easier to be more strategic, using data, to identify potential consumers who are "in market" to make a purchase or open to let you become part of their daily life, if you can make that connection, and add value, as well as work your way into their daily routine. But that is also the bad news. SO many marketers are looking for the "Easy" button (another marketing success) that will make their campaign hit KPI's without even trying. Not gonna happen.....no matter what textbook told you it could. The fact is there is a lot that comes into play with a campaign. Being customer-centric a using data just makes sure the delivery of it gets into the right hands, at the right time, and place......if done right. Oh, and it helps you avoid being put on an ad blocker list.

With all of that said we will also throw GDPR into the mix here. If you are marketing NOT in the UK then it is a non-issue for now. But it is the "Canary in the Mine" (ask your grandpa what it means) for marketers everywhere. Now that it is in place, other countries, and in the US even States (thank you California for being special), will be looking at some kind of legislation to show they are protecting your digital information and identities. With this the importance of data will not go away....it will only grow, as will the importance of relationships with consumers and potential consumers. What is the best way to make sure they engage and that your campaign is something that will get those consumers to want to see what you have to offer? You guessed it....data that helps you find what it is that connects and adds value. Add to that, location data, and having the ability to deliver your campaign creative at the right moment and place and you could become part of their journey.

Thats a lot to take in and to consider on top of getting the right mix of visuals, customized content and the actionable message just right so as to get the consumers attention and to get them to act. There is also a lingering problem that many companies still face and that is to just get their data to a place where they can make sense of it, be able to tell a story with it and build an audience that will help them put the plan mentioned into action. Getting consumer faced as a company, brand an organization requires a number of working parts all working together, which for some companies means a internal reword to get rid of those old silos. While having people focused on specific areas such as online (isn't it all online?), social, offline, mobile and video does addd value and focus to making sure those areas are creating an ROI that is acceptable. BUT if they are also creating their own message and audience under the guise of needing a social or video centric whatever, chances are your campaign will be fragmented and seem disconnected to your audience. Not to mention the lack of focus on your core audience or avatar.

Getting the data right, having one audience that is in market and that can bereached across all of the channels, while being available for delivery for all of your internal stakeholders is not an easy feat. But it can be done with the right 2nd and 3rd party data sources that are capable of identity matching your audience through the various channels. Look for a data partner that will do this without the walled gardens or requiring you to execute parts of or all of your campaign through them in order to get access to the data you need to get the full view of your consumer audience. This will likely be the biggest challenge, besides finding data that is up to date and accurate, at scale.

If you struggle with finding this kind of data in a format you can use and at scale please contact me and I will be glad to point you in the right direction so you can easily get the data you need and get your campaign delivered to the audience all of your channels need to execute a successful omni-channel campaign.

The bottom line - These days everyone in the data business seems to have some sort of identity graph. The usual questions like scale, accuracy, and hygiene are still important. But other questions like how the data is gathered, data points used to match the data and if it is online to offline or the opposite is important to as to determine a confidence score on how accurate the match often is.

Datastreams' Touch Platform Allows you to deliver your campaign to the audience you want through thier mobile devices at specific locations, within a radius of a Point of Interest or through a custom polygon of areas you wish to market to them at.You can use your first party data or we can help you augment your data and build audienes to add scale based on our own in-market data and identity graphing. Datastream offers a complete view of the consumer for Offline, online, mobile and video to allow you to deliver your campaign and value to the consumer in an omni-channel way.

Datastream has a competitive edge licensing their data because there is a large appetite in the current market for a marriage of digital identities to households. The Consumer Master File is built from active online consumer and business audiences and can be traced back to a postal address. You can also find our data on platforms like LiveRamp data store, Lotame, and others. For custom requests, or to find out more contact us. We specialize in helping you make sense of your data, engage and convert the right audience.. ([email protected])