It feels like we are in the midst of a revolutionary era in marketing. Data technology has at last given agencies and marketing teams the scientific credibility they have been chasing for decades. A whole generation of companies are flourishing off the back of this technology, which promises the transformational benefits of big data analytics, data warehouses and cross-channel management systems. Their ideas and passion are contagious and surprisingly far-reaching.
We are led to believe that there is a whole new breed of superior data “machines” that can provide the tools to “control” the disloyal, unpredictable consumer, as well as show which 50% of the marketing budget is actually working.
This extremely seductive story has propelled one-to-one marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) to “cool kid on the block” status. They even appear on the CEO agenda, as leaders become enticed by the cost savings derived from evidence-based decision making.
It is no surprise, therefore, that we’ve witnessed an unprecedented reverence shown towards the interpreters and engineers of these big data storing and crunching machines. Yet, despite a heavy investment in data analytics systems and an ambition to create a customer-first model, the big data machine has yet to produce a revolution in customer relationships – nor has it provided sufficient value relative to investment.
The obsession with digital capability and hardware has led to a neglect of data insight, leaving companies with complex and expensive machines but lacking the ability to extract anything meaningful. The result is “database lag” – a curious phenomenon where we think that we have evolved far beyond where we actually stand.
Amidst the hype around big data systems there is still very little evidence of exemplary CRM working across one single business. The vast majority of CRM today is transaction-focused and manifests itself as a barrage of random salesy email templates, turned on to maximum frequency. This is particularly exacerbated in financial services and insurance, where customers are crying out for education that is genuinely relevant to their lives.
For this reason Amazon has become a recurring reference point when we talk of great CRM. However, what we often ignore is that Amazon’s infamous suggestion engine narrows horizons, tempers organic discovery and routinely makes useless suggestions. Computer scientists, such as Intel’s principal UX engineer Maria Bezaitis, argue that in many sectors, too much personalisation and familiarity can be a barrier to behaviour change. In most cases it neglects the way the brain browses or makes purchase decisions.
But we’re afraid to turn off the machine – to experiment with a more human-led approach that recognises needs and motivations. We are convinced that we are personalising when in fact our messages are mostly generic campaign customisations based on very superficial and incomplete customer segmentations. The use of first names seems contrived and insincere when dropped into emails with generic text. Even in online retail, birthday acknowledgement remains quite rare.
If we are not careful, our lazy algorithms will slowly erode customer confidence and people will no longer see the real value exchange for handing over their precious data. Defensive behaviour, such as mass filtering and deleting, will become a compulsive reflex.
Organisations have been highly influenced by the cult-like obsession with automated personalisation: a marketing mythology that reduces the customer to a data byte based on their last click, abstracted from the context of the real world. It is the natural consequence of an industry that has been carried away by the promise of “technological determinism” – a world in which every human action can be predicted and explained by technology. It has led to a totally dehumanised approach to CRM that is obscuring the path to brand love and preventing the step-change that could get the industry closer to its dreams of prediction and control.
As human data becomes a valued commodity, customers will increasingly wonder what exactly they are getting in return. There is a possibility that our traditional CRM reflexes may not be sufficiently subtle or sensitive to build the high levels of customer trust and loyalty we need to compete.
However, bravery is needed to question our current trajectory and mindset. Bravery to leave our techno utopian dreams aside, to slow down our fertile imaginations and focus on the present. This will naturally enable agile data solutions that are nimble and easier to implement. However, more fundamentally, it will help shift priorities back to the problems of human nature – an understanding of which is at the heart of every great company.
Sarah Blackman is strategic innovation partner at Proximity London
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