Survey of 7000+ Global Consumers Highlights Increasingly Difficult Marketing Environment Amid Rising Consumer Experience Expectations and Data Privacy Concerns
Selligent Marketing Cloud, the B2C marketing automation company, have issued the results of a global survey, which polled 7000 consumers on their brand engagement preferences, customer experience expectations, and marketing pet peeves.
The findings show that what consumers want overwhelmingly contradict their behaviour: expectations for personalised customer experience are high but so is consumer discomfort with sharing personal data that makes personalisation possible.
- 33 percent of the respondents expect brands to anticipate needs before they arise and a whopping 70 percent agree that it’s important that brands understand a consumer’s individual situation (e.g. marital status, age, location, etc.) when they market to them and not just use every communication as a means to make a sale.
- When asked about segmentation, 74 percent of respondents noted that they expect companies to “treat me as an individual, not as a member of some segment like ‘millennials’ or ‘suburban mothers.'”
- However, 75 percent of consumers are concerned with a brand’s ability to track their behaviour – even while on their website and in their apps.
Consumers, overall, welcome brands to engage with them, especially when incentives are offered. This is particularly true when it pertains to geolocation marketing, with some generational differences:
- When it comes to ‘willingness to receive an alert about a sale for a store I was passing by,’ 48 percent of Millennials welcomed geo-targeted ads while out shopping, compared to 43 percent of GenX and only 29 percent of Baby Boomers.
- 48 percent of global respondents (53 percent of US respondents) said they would be happy if a movie theatre sent information about the screen location and a refreshments coupon when they were going to the movies; 50 percent of Millennials, 52 percent GenX, and 35 percent of Baby Boomers agree.
Brands are having to do more personalised marketing with less information as company data practices are top-of-mind for most consumers:
- 75 percent of global respondents expressed concern over the threat of a data breach, and 88 percent report concern that their data will be shared across companies without their consent.
Meanwhile, the ‘land grab’ approach towards data is still not an effective way to reach consumers:
- Only one in five consumers are willing to provide data to brands up-front in order to improve their experience.
- Forty percent of global respondents noted they are ‘more annoyed’ by companies now compared to five years ago. If a brand’s request for data is deemed ‘too much,’ some consumers are willing to abandon the brand altogether, with nearly 30 percent of respondents agreeing.
“Undoubtedly, it’s an increasingly challenging environment for marketers as consumers today better understand how their data is being captured and used. The good news for marketers is that it appears that over time, as consumers grow more digitally savvy, their willingness to share data will increase. As our study shows, most are more open with brands they trust and when they see brands delivering value. Smart marketers will take a much closer look at their strategies and create personalised marketing campaigns that build customer confidence and deliver a consumer-first experience.” Nick Worth, CMO of Selligent Marketing Cloud
Brands today need to get creative when it comes to gathering the important data points that will boost marketing success. While consumers exhibit some willingness to share data, they typically only trust brands they know well for fear of a data breach.
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