Customer Centricity Unlocks Advertising's Future

I recently got to read an old post from Chief Marketer thro' Msquared Group and it has got some lovely insights on how marketing and advertising has to change to the new order.

My view has also been that fusing data-driven marketing and targeted advertising will be the future. The ones who will be successful will be those who practice it, not talk about it in forums and seminars. It requires a balanced left and right brain thinking. The ones who get it, will be the ones in demand and take marketing & advertising to the next plane.

Take a look:

Seeing the Opportunity in Data Direct marketing practices will soon become advertising's new religion—if you know who your best customers are, you can proactively reach prospects just like them through addressable media. Getting there will require collaboration between database marketers and brand advertisers.

Many companies have a wealth of customer information in their marketing databases. The best marketers have a single view of each customer across the organization's various channels and can predict the offers, media and even creative to which specific customers are most likely to respond. For decades, direct marketers have combined this insight with demographic, attitudinal and lifestage information to reach the best prospects with relevant messages through segmentation and database marketing.

Gain Customer Clarity with Multi-Faceted Insight

Data already residing in your customer databases can provide a lot of historical information on your customers, but it doesn't really speak to who they are as individuals. You likely have customers who bought the same product but exist on opposite ends of the socio-economic spectrum. Or, you may know that two prospects are interested in the same product based on similar search terms, but you don't know enough about them to truly tailor your creative or offer.

This is the next plane of advertising optimization, where you not only know prospects are raising their hands with interest, but understand enough about them to truly tailor your approach. This consumer insight goes far beyond age, income and gender to include lifestage information like new home owner, new parent, young urbanite, young family or recently retired. It can include purchase behavior outside of that in your own database, offering insight into product category purchases and media preferences. Comprehensive media and advertising optimization takes place when this kind of information intersects with behavior to zero-in on the population most likely to respond and buy.

Deep Dive: Media Usage

According to Acxiom research conducted with data provider Mediamark Research and Intelligence, media junkies are:

• Twice as likely to buy from www.bestbuy.com and go to Banana Republic
• 76% more likely to have auto insurance with Progressive
• 50% more likely to say they intend to purchase their first house this year
• 77% less likely to be responsive to direct mail than the media moderates
• 20% less likely to be heavy newspaper readers
• 40% less likely to watch prime-time TV

If you want to drive the future of addressable advertising in your company make certain you know where all the gears are. Your advertising and database marketing teams can show you the way but only if they work together.