We live in a very digitised world where more and more interactions occur online. All these interactions leaves a data footprint what creates ‘digital identities’. In a perfect world these identities would allow companies to gain valuable understandings about their consumers. About what they like and dislike and their individual needs and desires.
Sadly, our perfect world isn’t that perfect. More than two third of UK consumers say that they providing false personal information about themselves. Most of the time this is because of concerns about how the data will be used. And even if the information is right, consumer behaviour evolves over time so the data will be soon no longer correct.
But how can you make sure that the delivered data will be correct in the first place? It all comes down to building trust. If consumers trust that their email only will be used to communicate with them, companies can trust that the data consumers share will truly reflects who they are.
Loyalty schemes are fast becoming the way in which marketers search for their data, but consumers have to be willing to sign up to them in the first place. Once they have, companies need to ensure they’re leveraging the data they collect in the right way. To be sure that they will engage with and retain their consumers by giving them the best personalized experience. Having a clear understanding of your consumers is the only way to give them truly understanding and tailored services.
Disruptors are already taking benefit of their agility and effectiveness in their use of data sources to disrupt industries all over the world, and the value these positive consumers experiences generate can’t be undervalued.
For now, the challenge for companies will be to build trust and to use data for the good of the consumer. The technology has been around for a long time, but it needs a mind shift that sees data as an extension of an personalized identity and not just as an commodity.
http://www.edelman.com/insights/intellectual-property/2016-edelman-trust-barometer/
https://hbr.org/2016/08/how-the-big-data-explosion-has-changed-decision-making
http://www.marketingtechnews.net/news/2016/sep/28/ bad-data-decisions/
Hi Marije,
Nice post about data and the threat of consumers entering false information. I agree with you that this is a problem for businesses that would like to make use of data. However I would like to draw a subtile distinction: Don’t you think that consumers make a difference in websites or webshops where they will actually buy something and websites or webshops which they just visit to have a look around? I think for the second kind of webshops or websites it is more important to focus on ‘Why is theis consumer not buying?’, this might be trust, but it could also be other reasons. When you get them to actually buying, you will receive valid data.
Hey Marije, thank you for your post!
I think it is besides bad data but also bad analytics which leads to bad decissions and mistrust of the consument. We are quickly assigned to a particular category, which is perhaps not even the right one or as you stated was once right but things changed and the data didn’t keep up. Also the data should focus on personal information, but still everyone is unique. I signed up for the personal adversing of the Albert Heijn, based on my bonus card and now I am placed in the ‘Student’ group. Of course this is right but I get advertisements of noodles and other horrible student food which I totally this like. So I think companies should be indeed more careful with the provided data, even if the data is honest :).