Written by

Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity. He is a best-selling author of 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has over 2 million social media followers, 1 million newsletter subscribers and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world and the No 1 influencer in the UK.

Bernard’s latest book is ‘Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That Are Redefining Organisations’

View Latest Book

Follow Me

Bernard Marr ist ein weltbekannter Futurist, Influencer und Vordenker in den Bereichen Wirtschaft und Technologie mit einer Leidenschaft für den Einsatz von Technologie zum Wohle der Menschheit. Er ist Bestsellerautor von 20 Büchern, schreibt eine regelmäßige Kolumne für Forbes und berät und coacht viele der weltweit bekanntesten Organisationen. Er hat über 2 Millionen Social-Media-Follower, 1 Million Newsletter-Abonnenten und wurde von LinkedIn als einer der Top-5-Business-Influencer der Welt und von Xing als Top Mind 2021 ausgezeichnet.

Bernards neueste Bücher sind ‘Künstliche Intelligenz im Unternehmen: Innovative Anwendungen in 50 Erfolgreichen Unternehmen’

View Latest Book

Follow Me

Personalization Pitfalls: 5 Common Mistakes To Avoid For Effective Marketing

3 May 2023

Targeted mass marketing was developed by direct mail businesses in the 1960s and 1970s to enable customers to be segmented by age, geography, or income. Today, thanks to the internet, social media, and our always-connected society, more information is generated about who we are and what we do than ever before. And all of this incredibly rich data can be used by organizations to offer us products, services, and marketing that is uniquely tailored to meet our needs in increasingly individual ways. This is the era of mass personalization.

Personalization Pitfalls: 5 Common Mistakes To Avoid For Effective Marketing | Bernard Marr

How personalization has evolved

Online, data-driven mass personalization started out with determining a user’s geographical location from their IP address and directing them to a landing page serving their particular region. As the variety and volume of the data collected increases, so does the granularity with which customers can be segmented by age, interests, occupation or many other factors. This means that the picture of each customer becomes increasingly personal.

The desire for personalization in marketing has become more important as we consumers have become resilient towards, and even resentful of, poorly-targeted mass communications from people trying to sell us things we don’t want or need.

At the same time, the demand for highly personalized products is increasing. We’re used to being able to customize big-ticket purchases like cars, with manufacturers offering a range of extras to tempt us to increase our spending. But thanks to related technology trends like AI, automation, robotic manufacturing, and 3D printing, almost any kind of mass-market product can be individually customized to help the buyer feel they have spent their money on something uniquely special to them.

And when it comes to services, internet giants like Google, Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify have pioneered the personalization trend by serving up personal recommendations to each individual customer. So when you scroll through the movies available on Netflix, you’re being offered a sample of what is available based on what Netflix thinks you will want. Spotify’s personalized weekly playlist is another great example. And, of course, Amazon is the king of personalized recommendations.

Avoiding the pitfalls of mass personalization

Clearly, mass personalization can deliver a range of business advantages, including increased sales and greater customer engagement. As an example, when Coca-Cola launched its “Share a Coke” campaign, with the logo on bottles being replaced with popular first names, the company gained roughly 25 million new Facebook followers.

That said, there are various downsides and challenges to consider. Here are five of the most common mass personalization mistakes and how to avoid them.

1. Creeping out your customers with overly personal marketing messages

Just as poorly targeted marketing is a turn-off for customers, so too are overly personal or familiar communications that can appear creepy in the way they are personalized. It’s one thing to say to your customers, “Hey, we notice you like X and Y, so we thought you might enjoy Z." But it's quite another to reveal you know a customer is pregnant based on their shopping habits before they've even told their family – as Target famously did with a teen customer several years ago. In other words, you want your customers to know that you value and notice them and that you can meet their needs as an individual, but not in a “Big Brother is watching you” kind of way. It’s not always easy to strike this balance, so if you’re ever unsure whether something is overstepping the mark, ask yourself how you'd feel if you received such a communication.

2. Not taking data privacy seriously

This is closely related to the first point since not creeping out your customers involves demonstrating to them that you can be trusted with their data and won’t abuse what you know about them. Balancing consumers' desire for personalized marketing, products, and services with ongoing public distrust surrounding wide-scale data gathering is certainly a challenge, but I believe public confidence will increase now that regulators are beginning to take data privacy seriously. (Indeed, hefty fines are now a reality in many jurisdictions for companies that misuse data, gather it without consent, or fail to adequately protect it.)

For organizations, taking data privacy seriously involves:

·        Explaining to customers what data is being collected and how that data will be used

·        Offering opportunities for privacy-conscious individuals to opt out of data capture and use your products/services anonymously

·        Regularly reviewing the methods of data capture that are used and how details about it are communicated to customers.

3. Using the same marketing personalization tools as everyone else

There are plenty of ready-made tools designed to help businesses better understand customers and their behaviors. Facebook and Google’s targeted marketing programs, for example, leverage the vast troves of data those organizations already own. The downside, of course, is that these tools are available to everyone. If you need to stand out from the crowd, or if mass personalization is critical to your business’s strategic goals, you might be better off with a more bespoke offering that caters to your business niche. Alternatively, you can create your own data gathering and analytics framework, although this can be a costly process.

4. Creating personalized products/services that your target audience won’t pay for

While someone might be delighted to buy a $2 bottle of Coca-Cola with their first name on it, they might be less charmed with the idea of paying $5 to get a bottle printed with their first name and surname. The risk with personalization is that it can restrict or eliminate huge sections of the market. So when you’re particularly thinking about personalizing products or services, you want to strike a balance between customizing your offering and not becoming so restrictive you cut out huge segments of your market.

5. Overlooking the impact on other business processes

Moving towards personalization will often also require a root-and-branch review of logistics and supply chain processes. For example, manufacturing goods to individual customer specifications means taking a completely different approach to warehousing and inventory management because design decisions may need to be made immediately prior to the product or service being delivered. When managed well, this can have a positive impact across the organization, from cutting down on the expense of storing inventory for long periods of time to reducing waste.

Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr
Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr

Related Articles

The Future Of Business: 8 Trends For Startups To Watch

Change and transformation in business continue at a furious rate, and new trends pose opportunities and challenges for organizations of all sizes.[...]

The Power of Mindset: How Curiosity And Humility Can Drive Career Success

I’ve recently finished writing a book on essential future skills, and if I had to pick one skill that underpinned all the other skills in the book it’d be curiosity.[...]

How To Upgrade From Data-Driven To AI-Driven Marketing Analytics

We’re told that data is the key to business success. But how do we go about turning data into money?[...]

How to Make AI Work in Your Organization

As the world continues to embrace the transformative power of artificial intelligence, businesses of all sizes must find ways to effectively integrate this technology into their daily operations.[...]

The Decision Dilemma: How More Data Causes Anxiety And Decision Paralysis

Every business needs data to make decisions that drive growth, streamline operations and improve profits.[...]

The Top 5 Manufacturing Trends In 2023

Global manufacturing and industry are still reeling from the disruption of recent years, with supply chain and workforce disruption still key issues.[...]

Stay up-to-date

  • Get updates straight to your inbox
  • Join my 1 million newsletter subscribers
  • Never miss any new content

Social Media

0
Followers
0
Followers
0
Followers
0
Subscribers
0
Followers
0
Subscribers
0
Yearly Views
0
Readers

Podcasts

View Podcasts