CMOs: 3 Things to Know About Collecting Consumer Data in a Disruptive Marketplace

As a CMO, you are increasingly involved with matters of data security and privacy, with a growing number of consumers questioning how companies are using their personal information. As a graduate student of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University’s Medill School who is interested in the role data plays in identifying and meeting customer needs, I have found two articles that address the subject of what you should know when it comes to collecting customers’ data in today's disruptive marketplace.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Personalized Marketing and Sales, is written by Bain & Company consultants Melanie Bockemuehl, Genia Kudryasheva and Huy Nguyen-Tuong. It shares examples of how companies in many industries are tapping on customer data and technology to improve both the end-user experience as well as the company’s bottom line. Touching on common blunders made in personalized marketing, the article elaborates on the steps marketers can take for effective “segment-of-one marketing”, to identify elements of your products or services valued most by customers and successfully create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Photographer: Jack Moreh. Taken from Freerange Stock Photos

Does Your Social Media App Know Too Much About You?, is written by Forbes contributor Jayson DeMers. Examining the value of personal data for marketers, particularly for those turning to social media sites to gather customer data, it identifies some key trends in user data collection over the years. It makes the case for why user privacy concerns matter and provides suggestions on what marketers can do to alleviate these concerns in a way that benefits both parties. 

 

Based on my analysis of these two articles as well as my observations as a marketing student, I have developed three action items you should consider implementing – there is no better time than right now! These are:

• Transparency Establishes Trust. Be transparent and explain what data you’re collecting and why, to build relationships with your customers that are based on trust.

• Personalization Creates Value. Get to know your customers on a deeper level to capture the bigger picture of what matters to them – their needs, frustrations, points of enchantment – so you can interact with them in a personalized manner instead of bombarding them with what they perceive as intrusive spam.

• Reliability Drives Reciprocity. Finally, focus on building your brand reputation in a way that convinces consumers that your solution best meets their needs, so they voluntarily come to you and share their data instead of the other way around.

So, the next time you encounter a surplus of customer data and need to decide what to do with it, recall these three action items – they can make a world of difference.

Aneesha Subramaniam

I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill School, Northwestern University (graduating in December 2017). I have three years of work experience in public relations and am keen to build expertise in marketing analytics and brand strategy. Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Marketers: The Top Trends of 2014 That Will Change What You Know!

The world of marketings is always evolving, but in 2014 and onward, things are going to start to change ranging from new trends to even new technology that will be used that will definitely change the way we all view our high value target markets! As a graduate student in the Northwestern Medill IMC program with an interest in technology and innovation, I have found two articles on 2014 tech trends and technology that you will find interesting and beneficial for your future campaigns.

In this article, The Top 7 Online Marketing Trends that will Dominate 2014,  by Forbes, written by Jayson DeMers, he definitely tries to demonstrate the Top 7 trends that will change the way marketers think of digital marketing.  To be honest, these are his predictions, but at the same time these are things that I have even personally seen being used by other brands and marketers as of late.  

He provides a deep-dive of the new dominate technologies that will dominate the world of marketing in 2014.  They range from content marketing, diversity in social media marketing, image-centric, mobile-friendly content as well as ad retargeting methods throughout advertising.  So much has happened in the world of digital marketing in the past few years, but 2014 is the year that things will definitely change.  Are you ready? Let me know what you think of these new dominate advertising items! Tweet me!

Apple will soon be releasing the long awaited...APPLE WATCH at the end of 2014/start of 2015!  In this article posted by Tech Radar, Apple Watch release date, news and features by Matt Swider, provides us with some insights on how this watch could revolutionize the way we see Apple and its apps!  The Apple Watch is by no means revolutionary since Motorola and Samsung have released a watch, but everyone has been talking about it and waiting for the release of it.  Everyone is excited about it because they will be the first to have a variety of styles and format in comparison to others.  The Apple Watch will definitely change the world of applications and how they are viewed.  A lot of marketers and brands will need to change the way their apps are formatted or viewed, but either way...the Apple Watch will definitely disrupt the world of technology and marketing!  What do you think of the new Apple watch? Will it disrupt the app world? Tweet Me!

As you can see, marketing has definitely made a huge turn for the best in 2014! It seems like every year marketers are having to change their mind-set on how marketing works and new fun different ways to create campaigns.  Marketing campaigns from 2010 are not the same ones used in 2014 and moving forward.  Thus, I think we need to do the following:

LEARN  

Learn about the new trends that are dominating brands in 2014...we have to know how they work in order to properly execute winning campaigns/content.

TEST

These are new trends that some marketers have been using but it doesn't mean we all know how to use it for our brands.  So test it out! See what works and what sticks to your campaigns! Don't be afraid to test before you execute.

EDUCATE

Well, aside from us learning about these trends and technology, we need to educate everyone around us.  There is always that one person that doesn't understand how it works...so, learn it so you can educate your team and/or department

Follow these three steps: Learn, Test and Educate before its too late! This should hopefully help every new and old marketer with their brand/service future planning.  Things are always changing and I believe, as a digital marketer and a graduate student at Northwestern IMC that we all need to follow these steps in order to ensure the success of our own brands.  If you are happy with plateau results and staying and using the same content and technology...then go for it! But if you want to be part of the trend...learn, test and educate yourself and spread the word about these trends and technology.  Things are changing but things are changing for the best! Hopefully these two articles will help you think of how you can utilize these trends for future campaigns.

Hivan Herrejon is a native Chicagoan who enjoys exploring the city and learning of great new restaurants and bars around the city!  In order to continue his exploration adventures around the city, he is currently enrolled as a part-time graduate student at Northwestern's Medill IMC program specializing in brand strategy and management.  Aside from being a graduate student, he is currently working for Oracle Marketing Cloud division that specialized in cross-channel marketing and digital orchestration. Feel free to tweet him at @hherrejon23