After seeing all the emerging solutions available at the Technology for Marketing Conference (TFM) in the end of September, I was reminded just how much technology has come in the last few decades, and how far it has to go.
I was hooked from the very beginning when I took the leap into marketing in 1989 from client services. Within a few months, I began my Chartered Institute of Marketing qualifications.
Looking back now those learnings look so basic compared to what is available now. But at the time they believed ground breaking.
The four P’s Maslow and PEST, SWOT theories along with other practices that invaded my mind. Don’t get me wrong, they have a location, but times they are a changing.
Back then it took time to unravel questionnaire, survey and focus group results to construct an image of your target market – processing mountains of information against demographics to be mapped from the product development team that was brand new.
At the rest of the Millennium I had been operating from an entire team and also for the very first time had a plethora of information at Vodafone. A lot of source was spent getting beneath the skin of customers and finding out exactly what they wanted.
It was a real eye opener and we watched the joys of services and products of personalisation and automation.
Shifting regulations
This was all taking place beneath the now incoming Information Protection Act 1998 (DPA). There was a certain level of confusion about opt-in or opt-outs for information collecting and utilizing, but compared to the latest laws that’s the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) it currently feels like a simpler time.
The number of personal data available from an even greater number of channels is mind blowing.
Add to the fact that information can be collected in real time, with clients making decisions that are instant, leaves entrepreneurs reeling with too little loyalty to any brand that is .
What could be done to assist brands continue to be successful in this age?
Of increasing value and importance data is. There is a real demand. Hidden would be the source of competitive edge.
Best practice will be to educate your customers
But, in the midst of theneed for this information, many businesses have lost sight of the most important aspect. The data comes from their clients and every individual. It is their personal details you need to analyse. Their tastes. Their buying history. Their functionality. Their health. This may be information that is really sensitive and is important to them.
GDPR goes a very long way to addressing this matter, giving back the taxpayer control of private data. However there is more that can be done. Marketers, although not completely accountable for delivering GDPR across the organisation — it touches on all departments and starts in the board room — must have responsibility for involvement and communication with potential and current customers.
Bringing them through the new legislation with you in the journey of your organisation.
One different step towards best practice is to educate your clients. Take them from the digital skills they now have (log in, select and purchase online) to an authentic digital comprehension of exactly what data they’re entrusting to you. What you plan, but will do with it, and it’ll be processed, shared or shared.
This will come from your privacy policy along with other communications. Policies and these communications have to be easy to find, read and understand — and be relevant.
Trust and data
With boxes pop up, interactive and video displays can be used to get your message over. But you have to record your clients’ approval — their permissions — or it is “don’t pass go, do not collect …”
MyLife Digital has developed the Consentric Permissions management solution to assist organisations deliver this against GDPR.
Digital transformation begins with transparency.
Going back to the start and thinking about TFM, and how far tech can still go. It’s astounding and amazing out there. Robot help, from virtual display rooms, chat bots to Bluetooth and the Internet of Things. The list continues on and on.
Will Alexa direct us to homes that are interactive with fridges restocking themselves from deliveries and supermarkets by driverless or drone car? Maybe? Probably? Certainly?
But remember with each transaction made there will be information — heaps of it. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes (or in their hover boards). You need to trust your data.
The basics – who you are, where you live, your age, your payment information, your own tastes. For clothes your dietary needs, for food shopping your own measurements, for health or prescriptions, for holidays if you would like to travel and where you’d like to go services your health documents and fitness performance levels. A tsunami of information that is private.
Your customers will want this — but not at any price.
Data has a worth. Digital transformation starts with transparency. It’s time to produce the new economy as the money and trust as the credit score with information.
