You’ve found your way to the 2nd installment of TheCustomer QT! We’ve designed it to be the most skimmable, comprehensive way to get the critical news affecting you and your customers. Hope you find it helpful.
– Mike Giambattista, CEO
MARKETING TRENDS
Preparing for a world without third-party cookies
Notable: If you’re among the 80% of marketers who rely on third-party cookies, it’s time to act. You’ll need a plan that future-proofs against the loss of identifiers. One that prioritizes your relationships with consumers above all else, and ensures their privacy without sacrificing their experience.
Forrester: Marketing will shift to localized, loyalty-based efforts in 2021
Notable: The focus on retaining customers will drive a 40% lift in the marketing messages that consumers receive, especially through direct channels like email and mobile messaging, Forrester forecasts.
Pandemic Purchase Patterns Shake Up Holiday Performance Marketing Campaigns
Notable: Cardlytics data shows in-store shopping is down, but remains the No. 1 way consumers spend. (Subscription required).
Marketing that our collective future depends on
Notable: Intentional inclusion with purpose woven throughout the brand experience conjures up feelings of acceptance, contentment, confidence, certainty, hope, and safety which precipitates loyalty — a leading indicator of future business growth.
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer Psychology 101: Why Convenience Is Key for E-Commerce Longevity
Notable: The National Retail Federation found that 83 percent of shoppers say that convenience is a bigger priority now in 2020 than it was five years ago, with online shoppers feeling even more strongly.
How Covid-19 has accelerated the shift to emotional loyalty for CPR brands
Notable: People have little patience for brands that don’t know who they are, what they need and how they prefer to be served. In this landscape, consumers are gravitating towards companies that demonstrate how well they understand the consumer as an individual and create innovative ways of engaging them.
Twitter Shares Insights on Consumer Expectations, and Hopes, Around the Holiday Period
Notable: Most regions will still face significant limitations over the Christmas period – but the data here does show that people are looking for some relief, for something to celebrate, and the holiday period, even in lockdown, could be a great opportunity to connect with people in a human, collaborative way.
INNOVATION
Benchmark USPTO study finds artificial intelligence in U.S. patents rose by more than 100% since 2002
Notable: Accompanying the 100% increase of AI-related patent applications was unprecedented growth and broad diffusion of AI across technologies, inventor-patentees, organizations, and geography that attest to the growing importance of AI for all of those seeking intellectual property protection.
Measuring the true value of design thinking
Notable: “We don’t live in the age of the automobile, or even the age of the computer. We live in the age of user experience”, and as such core principles such as customer-centric approaches critical to design thinking are a must for any company looking to compete.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Banking leaders share digital transformation fears
Notable: “The big challenge is how to unlock growth through the value of data effectively, whilst also maintaining the trust of the customer base,” Mr Cravero notes, adding that recent studies show that when people download an app, they typically decide whether they’re going to keep it or delete it in about 20 seconds. “It highlights the level of customer demands banks are having to work with at the moment, whilst maintaining customer trust.
Digital transformation is still fundamentally human, IFS study finds
Notable: Over a quarter (27 percent) of companies acknowledge that despite being key, people are often overlooked when planning and executing transformative projects, according to a research study from global enterprise applications company IFS.
CONSUMER TRUST
The new standards of customer engagement
Notable: In the midst of simultaneous crises of public health, economics, leadership, racial injustice, and climate change, customers are losing trust in institutions. More than half (52%) of survey respondents told Salesforce that they generally don’t trust companies and 61% saying it’s difficult for companies to earn their trust — up from 54% in 2019.
NEW STUDY SHOWS TRUST LEVELS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PREDICTED, BOOSTED BY PEOPLE’S RELATIONSHIP STYLE
Notable: “The findings show you can predict and increase people’s trust levels in non-humans based on their early relationships with humans,” Gillath said. “This has the potential to improve adoption of new technologies and the integration of AI in the workplace.”
CX
Large gap in brand promise and customer experience in telecom, media and tech space
Notable: There’s also a word of caution for the leaders – 55% of the 6,000 respondents are willing to change telecom providers, digital devices or video/sound streaming platforms if they face negative experiences with any of their brands.
Automation and Big Data Drive Great Customer Experience
Notable: A study by analyst Vanson Bourne shows that a single web or mobile transaction now crosses an average of 35 different technology systems or components, compared to 22 five years ago. The same study also found that 76% of CIOs polled said IT complexity could soon make it impossible to manage digital performance efficiently.
How to Appease Your Customers After Your Algorithm Rejects Them
Notable: It is surprising how a simple, costless intervention – explaining the purpose behind a decision even in a non-specific way – can impact customer behaviour to the benefit of both customers and company.
MARKETING OPS
Gartner Research Maps the Landscape of Marketing Operations
Notable: Gartner contends that the marketing operations role resembles that of a “chief of staff” whose primary job is to support the CMO.
DATA PRIVACY
Predictions 2021: Privacy Becomes An Imperative
Notable: One in four CMOs will invest more in technology to collect zero-party data. Digital advertising is on the brink of major, systematic changes. Values-based customers increasingly look to share their data with companies that embrace privacy as a value and treat data ethically.
Study reveals the apps that grab the most personal data
Notable: According to cybersecurity firm Clario, apps that collect the most data from you tend to be ones where you are the focus. If you’re on an app with a custom profile, you can bet that your data is being scooped up.
Privacy Gets Pricey: Rising GDPR Fines And The Risks Facing Canadian Companies
Notable: The GDPR provides for two levels of fines. At Level 1, if an organization subject to GDPR suffers a data breach, or it lacks a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA), the company can face a fine of up to 10 million euros or 2% of a company’s worldwide revenue (whichever is higher).
ICYMI – here’s a link to last week’s QT.