MarketingCharts: Why Aren't More Companies Connecting Big Data Dots for Loyalty Programs?
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from MarketingCharts, a Watershed Publishing publication providing up-to-to-minute data and research to marketers.
While most marketers are collecting outside customer data for campaigns, many are not seamlessly integrating the data, causing them to miss out on audience insights that would better inform their loyalty efforts, according to a new report from Loyalty360 and Acxiom. For example, while 68 percent of survey respondents (the majority of whom are involved in audience measurement) gather outside customer data, 53 percent do not append or integrate third-party data into customer relationship management (CRM) efforts.
Additionally, 87 percent do not account for the cost of servicing customers when marketing to them, which leads to them not focusing on their most valuable customers. Roughly nine in 10 are also ignoring influencer scores and not using net promoter scores for segmentation and measurement. Combined, the results suggest that, while most respondents feel the need to engage customers based on their needs and expectations, they're not leveraging the data in a way that maximizes the potential loyalty offered by customers.
The study cites various factors holding back increased customer understanding. These include lack of easy access to data (85 percent), an unfulfilled desire to locate and access all customer data in a single location (57 percent) and being limited to only using customer data available at hand to drive engagement (46 percent).
Another symptom of the larger problem emerges when examining social data. While more than 55 percent say they're collecting this data, three-quarters have a hard time integrating and accessing social data to activate all media, 72 percent do not recognize the referral value, and 70 percent are not collecting social data regarding competing brands.
Failing to adopt a holistic understanding of the customer makes it difficult for marketers to cultivate better relationships, and this appears to be an ongoing issue. Last year, a study from RSR Research revealed that only 56 percent of retail respondents believed their company could identify their best shoppers.
The Loyalty360/Acxiom data is based on a survey of 130 marketing executives from a myriad of industries, conducted in late 2012. Nearly three-quarters of respondents were in audience analysis and measurement, with the remainder in broader marketing and sales roles.