0:00 [Music]
0:11 Welcome back to another episode of the Millennium Live podcast where we bring you exclusive conversations with the most forward thinking leaders who are transforming the digital enterprise and great partner with Millennium Alliance.
0:26 Today we’re thrilled to be joined by Laura Compton. She’s the senior vice president of global marketing over at Sheer ID whose insights are transforming how retail brands approach personalization and customer engagement.
0:41 The goal of this episode, Laura’s going to share some expertise on the strategies that are driving the next wave of customer centric innovation in retail. And we’ll be getting into the cutting edge techniques that create meaningful experiences across every touch point, which is why I’m very excited to have her on today’s podcast.
1:02 So, welcome Laura. Thank you for joining.
1:05 Hi Connor, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here as well.
1:08 Amazing. So some of the common themes for those who are listening watching that hopefully you’ll be taking away out of this episode how leading brands are orchestrating loyalty strategies that go far beyond repeat purchases some evolving tech infrastructure that’s required for these journeys KPIs that are truly measuring the success in this age of personalization and of course discussing some emerging trends and considerations that will certainly help the shape the future of retail. So Laura, if you’re ready, let’s dive into it, shall we?
1:44 I’m ready and let’s do it. This is gonna be fun.
1:47 Amazing. So I think a good way to start is to really think beyond segmentation a little bit and talk a little bit about what are the most advanced and impactful strategies that you that you see retail brands are exploring and perhaps implementing and really to create that deeply personalized experience that resonate with individual consumers across all touch points.
2:16 Yeah, Connor, I think that that’s a really great question and you know, in in this really volatile economy that we’re in right now, personalization is becoming even more important for brands and and it goes across the gamut from retail to travel and hospitality. All all of the brands that we deal with as consumers, we want to be in a place where we are being seen as a consumer. For retail brands, moving beyond basic segmentation means embracing audience-based personalization. This involves understanding consumer not just by their browser and purchase history, but by who they genuinely are, their life stage, their profession, their affiliations, are they a student, are they a teacher, are they in the military?
3:06 Some of these advanced strategies can include using behavior and audience layering. That can mean combining your browsing and purchase data with verified audience information in order to deliver high, highly relevant and authentic experiences. It can mean contextual offers and content that trigger personalized offers and content based off of a consumer’s verified audience and affiliation while they’re in their specific purchase journey whether they’re in store or in an app or engaging with a direct mail piece. For example, a healthcare worker receiving a specific discount when they enter a store and are verified at a checkout counter.
3:48 This can also mean dynamic product recommendations, leveraging again that consumer data to deliver hyper tailored product offerings in their search queue or by by an entire employee that anticipates their needs based off of their unique group and what they have in their hands or what they have in their browser history.
4:12 It can also mean leveling out the seasonality of the business. I I this is one of the areas that I like the most to be quite honest. For brands that are in a seasonal selling cycle, especially retail and e-commerce focused brands, the year is filled with a lot of peaks, like super high peaks and super low troughs, right? The super high peaks, super low valleys, and the volatility can impact the whole company. It’s not just marketing. It’s not just finance. Operations and supply chain teams as well as the customer experience team. The people in store are impacted greatly by those peaks and valleys. And when you think about high high value or high high volume times of the year like back to school, holiday, Black Friday, huge spikes in demand are created. So what happens if we level out those spikes? What if it happens if we start selling a little bit earlier by providing exclusive or early access discounts to high-value consumers like students and teachers? What if we say you know back to school shopping can start in July rather than in August and September and give those early access opportunities, those early access discounts to those exclusive high-value audiences with hyperfocused campaigns targeting these audiences. It gives the cohort something unique and special that offers the offers that some others aren’t getting access to. It helps you have access to the best product that are in your store and you can plan who’s on your floor accordingly. And it also gives you know your finance organizations, your modeling your data analytics teams a lot more less headache because you’re not fearing the stacking of promotions and/or eroding your margin as a result. This limited time only component also drives urgency and FOMO and triggering a buy now mentality in those high value audience groups as well.
6:23 Yeah, a couple of great points there, Laura. I want to build off that because what we know is that cultivating deep lasting relationships is going to be crucial for retail success. That is a given. Building off your point too about innovative and nontransactional strategies, what have you observed there where retail brands are implementing these strategies to build genuine loyalty and and really foster those strong connections with their customers as you were mentioning just now.
6:56 Yeah. So building genuine loyalty in retail extends far beyond the transaction. You know giving brands or consumers the opportunity to have exclusive community access. You know we talked a little bit about students previously but military spouse community groups or nurses these are all exclusive community groups that create a kind of flywheel effect for a brand when they know the brand is taking care of of of that community. Brands offering these groups discounts or early access to online forums, early product releases, VIP support lines are they’re being discussed in the community forums of those groups. Purpose-driven engagement, trying to tie the loyalty programs to a social impact initiative that that verified community cares about. Being able to donate a certain percentage of the sales to teachers or educational charities is a helpful way of delivering that community experience that loyalty experience without having to erode the margin on that front.
8:11 Being able to deliver curated content and experiences. Having virtual workshops or in-person events that resonate deeply with these audiences. giving them an opportunity to share their expertise with each other. Being able to combine or or bring together those communities in really cool ways in your store or in other environments is a great way to continue to drive that altruistic nature of this audience-based marketing effort. It also allows for some really cool opportunities with referral and advocacy programs. Empowering these high value customers to share their exclusive offers with others in an in a way allows them to turn right into those brand advocates on your behalf.
9:03 There’s other other brands that we’re seeing that are also providing, you know, parking spaces to these special parking spaces to these high value consumers. Personalized greetings that happen as you as you’re coming to the checkout counter because you’re already a known entity to that consumer or to that brand. These are things that we’re seeing out in the market that are nontransactional ways of driving that loyalty that help the consumer to feel seen by that brand, but and also be seen for the the commitment and the the give back that they’re doing for our own communities as well.
9:46 Personalized parking spaces. I love that.
9:50 Yeah. Yeah. can go check it out at the Home Depot. There’s military spaces dedicated for those who are are serving our country so that they get dedicated access to to or dedicated spots in our in in the parking lot. It’s pretty cool opportunity to show somebody who serves our country some added respect for for their support.
10:13 That’s fantastic. I I I really do. I love that. So it some of these amazing perks and personalized strategies, how can brands strategically orchestrate these customer journeys and these initiatives to to help continue fostering those genuine loyalty programs that that again go beyond recent purchases. But and more importantly, who needs to be a part of these conversations to to really maximize CLV?
10:47 Yeah, that’s a super great question and I think that the answer is everybody honestly. Strategically orchestrating customer journeys for genuine loyalty and for maximizing CLV requires a really cross functional approach truly cross functional approach across the organization. This isn’t just a marketing initiative. It is a companywide commitment and some of those key players that you need at the table obviously are the CMO and marketing leaders. They’re going to be the ones that are going to be defining the vision and strategy and messaging for personalized engagement. We need the customer experience team, the customer service leaders, to ensure the post-purchase experiences align with the personalized promises that we’re putting out in the market and that we’re addressing those needs empathetically and authentically. We need our product and engineering teams. They’re the ones that are going to be building the necessary data infrastructure, the integration capabilities and the personalized features into the core product in order to create those digital touch points as well. combination of being in the core product itself but also allowing for those that leverage digital tools like the marketing team to create those personalized experiences across those digital touch points.
12:07 Sales and revenue operations aligning targeting understanding customer value and ensuring sales motions support the loyalty driving initiatives are all critical. My friends in finance data science analytics teams they are critical to providing the insights the modeling the customer behaviors and measuring the impact of personalization on CLV itself. They need to help us understand what’s working, what’s not working, where we step on the gas, where we pump on the brakes in order to to make this happen effectively. And then of course legal and privacy. We this is data. This is information on our customers and we need to make sure that we’re doing this in an ethical way that is in line with all all of the compliance compliance levers that are being put into place. And that we’re doing it in a way that builds trust with with our with our customers. These conversations that these brand or these functions within the brand need to have must focus on breaking down the silos to create a unified view of the customer and their journey all the way from acquisition to advocacy.
13:20 Yeah, certainly some ethical considerations to to consider. Something else that’s crucial, Laura, is technology infrastructure. It’s vital for retail personalization programs as you know.
13:34 Yeah.
13:35 Wondering about some of the key technological challenges that that you’ve seen retail brands encounter and of course some of the solutions or platforms that that seem to be most effective in enabling personalization strategies.
13:52 You know, it’s kind of interesting. I actually started my career post college career in a retailer retail it was at Mvin’s headquarters out in the Bay Area of California and Mvin is actually no longer around and I think that a lot of that has to do with the brand’s inability to understand technology and to understand the importance of the customer data in in order to to deliver on these customer experiences. And we’re continuing to see so many brands within the United States in particular peter away because of their inability to understand the importance of that customer data and make those investments. I’ve been a part of the marketing technology space for over 15 years now and I am I am surprised that we’re still talking about data silos, but we are. There’s still a lot of data silos. There’s still a lot of integration complexity that needs to be put at the forefront of these conversations in order for brands to overcome the challenges that they’re they’re facing when when meeting the needs and expectations of their consumers. Data silos and integration complexity are a huge part of the technological challenges that brands are facing and that’s why it’s it takes a full team commitment to delivering on the customer experience in order for the the brands that are winning to continue winning.
15:33 Customer data often resides in disparate systems making a unified customer view difficult to achieve. The challenge is less about having the data and more about connecting and activating it seamlessly. We also have to talk about identity resolution. Accurately recognizing individual customers across their online and offline touch points without infringing on that privacy is a major hurdle for brands to overcome. These are all things that they have to address in order to be able to deliver hyperpersonalization at scale. Moving from basic segmentation to truly individualized experiences demands robust infrastructure that can process vast amounts of data and deliver real-time experiences at scale and owning your customer data. Owning is the key word. Owning is the operative word there. And understanding the data hierarchy. A lot of brands don’t own the customer data they need. In many cases, they rent it. And many brands haven’t established a data hierarchy. Is permission data more relevant than inferred data? Is demographic data more critical than behavioral data in getting this customer to convert and ultimately stick around for a few years? These are all decisions that the individual brand has to answer on on behalf of their consumer and on behalf of the journey that they’re trying to create with their customers.
17:01 Effective solutions start with a strategy around knowing your customer. Centralizing the systems to bring the data together for operationalization. Establishing a data hierarchy for all the permissioned, acquired, and inferred data your brand collects. Identifying the cohorts that are relevant to your brand based on demographics, lifestyle, and behavioral data. your ICP. And don’t forget, it’s your negative ICP is just as important here. I know not everybody knows that term, negative ICP, but these are the these are the consumers or customers that just aren’t right the right fit for your brand. And it’s okay to say no. It’s okay to be to put the bare minimum in with some of those consumers because they’re just not the right consumer for you. And have being able to understand your data well enough to know who are the right brand the right consumers to go after and the wrong consumers to go after is just as important as knowing knowing that positive ICP for your brand. And then finally, we need to with all of that data and information ready to go, we need to develop marketing campaigns that are clearly aligned to those specific cohorts to help the brands have the best foot forward in in pulling those those consumers in and again getting them from acquisition to advocacy in a really great state.
18:33 Yeah. I I feel like we still talk about data silos, Lara, because some brands, some organizations still don’t quite understand the importance.
18:43 It’s so interesting. I was just having conver I I was just at the Millennium Alliance event in Dallas a few a few months back and I was shocked to hear how many of the marketers even within what you would think are marketing departments the marketers and the loyalty marketers aren’t sharing their data across their own teams let alone their the broader departments within an organization and you know how can you how can you get to a place where you’re delivering a seamless consumer experience a a seamless customer journey for these consumers if you’re not sharing that information freely across your organization and a lot of times it’s not that the these teams don’t want to share that data it’s that the data silos are there that they can’t easily the technology the infrastructure is not there to share that information as freely as as we’d expect.
19:49 Yes. Which is which is why we’re having these conversations now on Millennium Live podcast.
19:55 Exactly. Exactly. So I think that it’s also why you know I I think that cross-departmental initiative is required in order to make that change happen that that mind shift happen in a in a seamless way.
20:13 Right. A great point. So, let’s talk a little bit about ROI, too, while we’re on while we’re on this. you know measuring tangible impact on loyalty and CLV is going to be essential for ROI coming out of retail. But beyond some of the standard metrics, what what unique or insightful KPIs have you seen, Laura, that retail brands can track to truly understand the success of of their personalization efforts?
20:45 For sure. So I think a lot of brands are tracking conversion rates and AOV brands that are looking at new to file purchase frequency verification rates of their high value audiences and aggregate effective discount are brands that are are really pushing the needle on on on the the personalization efforts. Verification rates mean that they’re measuring the willingness of their customers to share audience data in exchange for value. For example, a consumer is sharing with the brand that they are a teacher in exchange for a discount on a purchase. And that aggregate effective discount rate helps brands monitor the margin dilution that can occur with promotion stacking. We talked a little bit about that earlier in the example of being able to level out this the high high volume selling cycles in a really critical way that allows you to extend deeper discounts to high value audiences while still providing discounts to the masses during these critical times for retailers and e-commerce brands and things like that. Leveraging a company like Shar allows brands to provide discounted offers to high value audiences while keeping that margin dilution in check in a really critical way too.
22:06 One of the things I wanted to bring back because you you made some good points about it, but you know, we live in such an era of growing concern about data privacy that we should I I want to get pick your brain a little bit more on this, but what are some of the best practices for for gathering and utilizing customer insights to be able to deliver these personalized experiences, but as you mentioned, building trust and maintaining that strong consumer trust and brand affinity.
22:40 Yeah, this is my one of my favorite topics is customer data and and privacy. Ultimately brands must treat their customer data as a privilege. It’s not a right and they must consistently demonstrate that they are trustworthy stewards of this information. They do this with transparency and consent. being crystal clear about what data is being collected and why and how it will be used obtaining a explicit informed consent especially for sensitive data share models it share these model is actually built with this foundation as consumers actively share this data directly with the brand they are transacting with the value exchange we have to ensure that consumers receive a tangible clear benefit in exchange for sharing their data Personalization shouldn’t feel intrusive. It should feel valuable and helpful. And data minimization. There’s a lot of brands that are collecting a lot of data. So much data that they don’t even know what to do with it. We should really only be collecting the data that is truly necessary for the intended personalization. We shouldn’t be avoiding or we shouldn’t be hoarding unnecessary information. It’s just not what our consumers want us to be doing. It’s also not what our engineers want us to be doing either. Quite frankly, we need to be prioritizing the data that we need, the data sources that are most relevant to to moving the consumers along that customer journey in their path to to loyalty with with the brand.
24:23 Yeah, well said. Well said. So I know sometimes we can look at the economy right now and things are could look be looking a little grim but it’s always it’s always good to look ahead and and talk a little bit about what what kind of emerging personalization techniques are out there and some of the technologies of the future. I mean, we talk a lot about AI on this podcast almost all the time, but what do you what do you see, Laura, about some of the technologies that hold the most promise, I guess, for for retail brands that are really trying to unlock sustainable growth and of course further maximize CLV and in in what is proving to be such an evolving retail landscape year by year.
25:13 Yeah. So I think we talked honestly we talked a little bit about some of those emerging areas in the conversation with our our advanced segmentation areas and I think that AI to your point is definitely in an evolving space and I think that that that without having that data infrastructure in play brands aren’t going to be able to take advantage of of these next generation technologies in the way that they need to. real time contextual personalization it personalization I can’t talk today is is really one of those critical areas where if if a brand isn’t already doing advanced segmentation this is going to be harder for them to take advantage of but I do think that brands that are in that advanced state they are going to be able to leverage real-time personalization in a really critical way that is going to incorporate both the behavior as well as the location of that individual and and be able to use AI and and machine learning to predict and anticipate the needs of of that consumer based off of where they are. generative AI for content is going to be a really cool way for them to again continue to to move on that hyperpersonalization journey with content that has been curated specifically for that individual. And and that again is going to rely on those data silos being removed so that that information can freely flow with across the organization in order to allow that AI component to come into play.
26:59 We are seeing some brands doing this in a really cool way with adjusting the creative on their homepage based off of who the individual is. being able to adjust the imagery based off of who’s interacting with with the content on socials and things like that as well. And then another area is going to be in the the more ethical identity resolution and and consent orchestration. Again, if if brands are able to continue to or the brands that are able to continue to pull that consumer data in a consent forward way, helping the consumer to understand where and how their data is being leveraged. they’ll be able to un know who that consumer is and be able to drive the marketing touch points in a really consent forward way for those for those consumers. So there’s some really exciting things that are happening with AI and machine learning. And I’m excited to continue to see how how this space evolves with with our brands.
28:12 Yeah, I’m excited. It’s going to be interesting to see what what what all this looks like in in just a matter of couple years.
28:20 I don’t even think it’s going to take years. It’s it I feel like it’s that Tom Cruise movie. What is it? Vanilla Sky. Feels like it’s all coming to to reality very quickly here.
28:31 That’s true. It is. Yeah. Only a couple months. We should we should catch up on another podcast literally in six months and see in that period of time. But Laura, I want to thank you. I have one more question for you and before go because I think it all this kind of needs sort of a if if brands aren’t on this track already, they need a fundamental shift in in mindset and in in order to achieve these goals and and even within within their organization, the culture. What have you seen in terms of that successful brands actually achieve this and what are they doing in order to truly embrace this this customer centric approach that we’ve been discussing here on today’s podcast?
29:21 Yeah. So, I read an article earlier this week in Forbes about how American Airlines chief customer officer recently created a customer experience advisory board in quotes customer experience advisory board for the company and leaders from Disney, Marriott, Four Seasons, Walmart, and a whole slew of other top brands are part of this board advising American Airlines on how to not just service their customers but anticipate their needs. The article states, and I quote, “Great brands don’t just react to customer expectations, they anticipate them.” Customer centricity must be at the core of a brand that desires to anticipate the needs of their customers. It must be part of every business function’s DNA for the brand to be able to stay that nimble to react and anticipate to the needs of its customers. And data is its superpower. Specifically, brands who desire to make the shift must focus on how they move from transactional to relational. The shift from viewing customers as a one-time buyer to recognizing them as the individuals they are with whom to build a long-term relationship. They must move from the silos to unified. They need to break down departmental silos across marketing, sales, customer experience, product, finance, all of those areas to create a single shared view of the customer and their journey. This requires strong cross functional leadership and shared KPIs.
30:59 We need to move from campaign centric to journey centric. The focus moves from launching individual campaigns to orchestrating continuous adaptive customer journeys across all touch points. We need to move from data driven to data humanized. While data remains critical, the shift is going to be towards how to use data to understand and empathize with humans rather than just optimizing the numbers. And we need to move from a just sell to a serve and add value mentality. Recognizing that providing consistent personalized value and solving customer problems is our surest path to loyalty and sales. We also need to embrace the agility and experimentation. I treat my team as scientists. This is a cultural shift towards rapid testing, learning, iterating based on personalization, performance rather than staying rigid and keeping with long-term planning. And then I’m going to say it one more time, the privacy, privacy by design culture, integrating privacy and ethical data practices into the core of all personalization efforts is critical from the outset. and it can’t just be an afterthought in in that data collection process.
32:24 Laura, I think that I love that answer because I think it encompasses all of the themes and touch points that we are talking about today on this podcast. So, I thank you so much. Laura Compton, SVP of global marketing at Sheer ID, wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts just on everything that we’ve talked about today, but just being a great partner of the Millennium Alliance and having these conversations. It makes leaders better what they do and it’s partners like you that that can come on and share valuable solutions that are really transforming the enterprise. So Laura, I hope we get to talk again on another podcast. But this was so much fun and we’ll see you soon.
33:13 Thanks Connor. I really appreciate your time today and thank you Millennium Alliance for having me.
33:19 [Music]
0:11 Welcome back to another episode of the Millennium Live podcast where we bring you exclusive conversations with the most forward thinking leaders who are transforming the digital enterprise and great partner with Millennium Alliance.
0:26 Today we’re thrilled to be joined by Laura Compton. She’s the senior vice president of global marketing over at Sheer ID whose insights are transforming how retail brands approach personalization and customer engagement.
0:41 The goal of this episode, Laura’s going to share some expertise on the strategies that are driving the next wave of customer centric innovation in retail. And we’ll be getting into the cutting edge techniques that create meaningful experiences across every touch point, which is why I’m very excited to have her on today’s podcast.
1:02 So, welcome Laura. Thank you for joining.
1:05 Hi Connor, thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here as well.
1:08 Amazing. So some of the common themes for those who are listening watching that hopefully you’ll be taking away out of this episode how leading brands are orchestrating loyalty strategies that go far beyond repeat purchases some evolving tech infrastructure that’s required for these journeys KPIs that are truly measuring the success in this age of personalization and of course discussing some emerging trends and considerations that will certainly help the shape the future of retail. So Laura, if you’re ready, let’s dive into it, shall we?
1:44 I’m ready and let’s do it. This is gonna be fun.
1:47 Amazing. So I think a good way to start is to really think beyond segmentation a little bit and talk a little bit about what are the most advanced and impactful strategies that you that you see retail brands are exploring and perhaps implementing and really to create that deeply personalized experience that resonate with individual consumers across all touch points.
2:16 Yeah, Connor, I think that that’s a really great question and you know, in in this really volatile economy that we’re in right now, personalization is becoming even more important for brands and and it goes across the gamut from retail to travel and hospitality. All all of the brands that we deal with as consumers, we want to be in a place where we are being seen as a consumer. For retail brands, moving beyond basic segmentation means embracing audience-based personalization. This involves understanding consumer not just by their browser and purchase history, but by who they genuinely are, their life stage, their profession, their affiliations, are they a student, are they a teacher, are they in the military?
3:06 Some of these advanced strategies can include using behavior and audience layering. That can mean combining your browsing and purchase data with verified audience information in order to deliver high, highly relevant and authentic experiences. It can mean contextual offers and content that trigger personalized offers and content based off of a consumer’s verified audience and affiliation while they’re in their specific purchase journey whether they’re in store or in an app or engaging with a direct mail piece. For example, a healthcare worker receiving a specific discount when they enter a store and are verified at a checkout counter.
3:48 This can also mean dynamic product recommendations, leveraging again that consumer data to deliver hyper tailored product offerings in their search queue or by by an entire employee that anticipates their needs based off of their unique group and what they have in their hands or what they have in their browser history.
4:12 It can also mean leveling out the seasonality of the business. I I this is one of the areas that I like the most to be quite honest. For brands that are in a seasonal selling cycle, especially retail and e-commerce focused brands, the year is filled with a lot of peaks, like super high peaks and super low troughs, right? The super high peaks, super low valleys, and the volatility can impact the whole company. It’s not just marketing. It’s not just finance. Operations and supply chain teams as well as the customer experience team. The people in store are impacted greatly by those peaks and valleys. And when you think about high high value or high high volume times of the year like back to school, holiday, Black Friday, huge spikes in demand are created. So what happens if we level out those spikes? What if it happens if we start selling a little bit earlier by providing exclusive or early access discounts to high-value consumers like students and teachers? What if we say you know back to school shopping can start in July rather than in August and September and give those early access opportunities, those early access discounts to those exclusive high-value audiences with hyperfocused campaigns targeting these audiences. It gives the cohort something unique and special that offers the offers that some others aren’t getting access to. It helps you have access to the best product that are in your store and you can plan who’s on your floor accordingly. And it also gives you know your finance organizations, your modeling your data analytics teams a lot more less headache because you’re not fearing the stacking of promotions and/or eroding your margin as a result. This limited time only component also drives urgency and FOMO and triggering a buy now mentality in those high value audience groups as well.
6:23 Yeah, a couple of great points there, Laura. I want to build off that because what we know is that cultivating deep lasting relationships is going to be crucial for retail success. That is a given. Building off your point too about innovative and nontransactional strategies, what have you observed there where retail brands are implementing these strategies to build genuine loyalty and and really foster those strong connections with their customers as you were mentioning just now.
6:56 Yeah. So building genuine loyalty in retail extends far beyond the transaction. You know giving brands or consumers the opportunity to have exclusive community access. You know we talked a little bit about students previously but military spouse community groups or nurses these are all exclusive community groups that create a kind of flywheel effect for a brand when they know the brand is taking care of of of that community. Brands offering these groups discounts or early access to online forums, early product releases, VIP support lines are they’re being discussed in the community forums of those groups. Purpose-driven engagement, trying to tie the loyalty programs to a social impact initiative that that verified community cares about. Being able to donate a certain percentage of the sales to teachers or educational charities is a helpful way of delivering that community experience that loyalty experience without having to erode the margin on that front.
8:11 Being able to deliver curated content and experiences. Having virtual workshops or in-person events that resonate deeply with these audiences. giving them an opportunity to share their expertise with each other. Being able to combine or or bring together those communities in really cool ways in your store or in other environments is a great way to continue to drive that altruistic nature of this audience-based marketing effort. It also allows for some really cool opportunities with referral and advocacy programs. Empowering these high value customers to share their exclusive offers with others in an in a way allows them to turn right into those brand advocates on your behalf.
9:03 There’s other other brands that we’re seeing that are also providing, you know, parking spaces to these special parking spaces to these high value consumers. Personalized greetings that happen as you as you’re coming to the checkout counter because you’re already a known entity to that consumer or to that brand. These are things that we’re seeing out in the market that are nontransactional ways of driving that loyalty that help the consumer to feel seen by that brand, but and also be seen for the the commitment and the the give back that they’re doing for our own communities as well.
9:46 Personalized parking spaces. I love that.
9:50 Yeah. Yeah. can go check it out at the Home Depot. There’s military spaces dedicated for those who are are serving our country so that they get dedicated access to to or dedicated spots in our in in the parking lot. It’s pretty cool opportunity to show somebody who serves our country some added respect for for their support.
10:13 That’s fantastic. I I I really do. I love that. So it some of these amazing perks and personalized strategies, how can brands strategically orchestrate these customer journeys and these initiatives to to help continue fostering those genuine loyalty programs that that again go beyond recent purchases. But and more importantly, who needs to be a part of these conversations to to really maximize CLV?
10:47 Yeah, that’s a super great question and I think that the answer is everybody honestly. Strategically orchestrating customer journeys for genuine loyalty and for maximizing CLV requires a really cross functional approach truly cross functional approach across the organization. This isn’t just a marketing initiative. It is a companywide commitment and some of those key players that you need at the table obviously are the CMO and marketing leaders. They’re going to be the ones that are going to be defining the vision and strategy and messaging for personalized engagement. We need the customer experience team, the customer service leaders, to ensure the post-purchase experiences align with the personalized promises that we’re putting out in the market and that we’re addressing those needs empathetically and authentically. We need our product and engineering teams. They’re the ones that are going to be building the necessary data infrastructure, the integration capabilities and the personalized features into the core product in order to create those digital touch points as well. combination of being in the core product itself but also allowing for those that leverage digital tools like the marketing team to create those personalized experiences across those digital touch points.
12:07 Sales and revenue operations aligning targeting understanding customer value and ensuring sales motions support the loyalty driving initiatives are all critical. My friends in finance data science analytics teams they are critical to providing the insights the modeling the customer behaviors and measuring the impact of personalization on CLV itself. They need to help us understand what’s working, what’s not working, where we step on the gas, where we pump on the brakes in order to to make this happen effectively. And then of course legal and privacy. We this is data. This is information on our customers and we need to make sure that we’re doing this in an ethical way that is in line with all all of the compliance compliance levers that are being put into place. And that we’re doing it in a way that builds trust with with our with our customers. These conversations that these brand or these functions within the brand need to have must focus on breaking down the silos to create a unified view of the customer and their journey all the way from acquisition to advocacy.
13:20 Yeah, certainly some ethical considerations to to consider. Something else that’s crucial, Laura, is technology infrastructure. It’s vital for retail personalization programs as you know.
13:34 Yeah.
13:35 Wondering about some of the key technological challenges that that you’ve seen retail brands encounter and of course some of the solutions or platforms that that seem to be most effective in enabling personalization strategies.
13:52 You know, it’s kind of interesting. I actually started my career post college career in a retailer retail it was at Mvin’s headquarters out in the Bay Area of California and Mvin is actually no longer around and I think that a lot of that has to do with the brand’s inability to understand technology and to understand the importance of the customer data in in order to to deliver on these customer experiences. And we’re continuing to see so many brands within the United States in particular peter away because of their inability to understand the importance of that customer data and make those investments. I’ve been a part of the marketing technology space for over 15 years now and I am I am surprised that we’re still talking about data silos, but we are. There’s still a lot of data silos. There’s still a lot of integration complexity that needs to be put at the forefront of these conversations in order for brands to overcome the challenges that they’re they’re facing when when meeting the needs and expectations of their consumers. Data silos and integration complexity are a huge part of the technological challenges that brands are facing and that’s why it’s it takes a full team commitment to delivering on the customer experience in order for the the brands that are winning to continue winning.
15:33 Customer data often resides in disparate systems making a unified customer view difficult to achieve. The challenge is less about having the data and more about connecting and activating it seamlessly. We also have to talk about identity resolution. Accurately recognizing individual customers across their online and offline touch points without infringing on that privacy is a major hurdle for brands to overcome. These are all things that they have to address in order to be able to deliver hyperpersonalization at scale. Moving from basic segmentation to truly individualized experiences demands robust infrastructure that can process vast amounts of data and deliver real-time experiences at scale and owning your customer data. Owning is the key word. Owning is the operative word there. And understanding the data hierarchy. A lot of brands don’t own the customer data they need. In many cases, they rent it. And many brands haven’t established a data hierarchy. Is permission data more relevant than inferred data? Is demographic data more critical than behavioral data in getting this customer to convert and ultimately stick around for a few years? These are all decisions that the individual brand has to answer on on behalf of their consumer and on behalf of the journey that they’re trying to create with their customers.
17:01 Effective solutions start with a strategy around knowing your customer. Centralizing the systems to bring the data together for operationalization. Establishing a data hierarchy for all the permissioned, acquired, and inferred data your brand collects. Identifying the cohorts that are relevant to your brand based on demographics, lifestyle, and behavioral data. your ICP. And don’t forget, it’s your negative ICP is just as important here. I know not everybody knows that term, negative ICP, but these are the these are the consumers or customers that just aren’t right the right fit for your brand. And it’s okay to say no. It’s okay to be to put the bare minimum in with some of those consumers because they’re just not the right consumer for you. And have being able to understand your data well enough to know who are the right brand the right consumers to go after and the wrong consumers to go after is just as important as knowing knowing that positive ICP for your brand. And then finally, we need to with all of that data and information ready to go, we need to develop marketing campaigns that are clearly aligned to those specific cohorts to help the brands have the best foot forward in in pulling those those consumers in and again getting them from acquisition to advocacy in a really great state.
18:33 Yeah. I I feel like we still talk about data silos, Lara, because some brands, some organizations still don’t quite understand the importance.
18:43 It’s so interesting. I was just having conver I I was just at the Millennium Alliance event in Dallas a few a few months back and I was shocked to hear how many of the marketers even within what you would think are marketing departments the marketers and the loyalty marketers aren’t sharing their data across their own teams let alone their the broader departments within an organization and you know how can you how can you get to a place where you’re delivering a seamless consumer experience a a seamless customer journey for these consumers if you’re not sharing that information freely across your organization and a lot of times it’s not that the these teams don’t want to share that data it’s that the data silos are there that they can’t easily the technology the infrastructure is not there to share that information as freely as as we’d expect.
19:49 Yes. Which is which is why we’re having these conversations now on Millennium Live podcast.
19:55 Exactly. Exactly. So I think that it’s also why you know I I think that cross-departmental initiative is required in order to make that change happen that that mind shift happen in a in a seamless way.
20:13 Right. A great point. So, let’s talk a little bit about ROI, too, while we’re on while we’re on this. you know measuring tangible impact on loyalty and CLV is going to be essential for ROI coming out of retail. But beyond some of the standard metrics, what what unique or insightful KPIs have you seen, Laura, that retail brands can track to truly understand the success of of their personalization efforts?
20:45 For sure. So I think a lot of brands are tracking conversion rates and AOV brands that are looking at new to file purchase frequency verification rates of their high value audiences and aggregate effective discount are brands that are are really pushing the needle on on on the the personalization efforts. Verification rates mean that they’re measuring the willingness of their customers to share audience data in exchange for value. For example, a consumer is sharing with the brand that they are a teacher in exchange for a discount on a purchase. And that aggregate effective discount rate helps brands monitor the margin dilution that can occur with promotion stacking. We talked a little bit about that earlier in the example of being able to level out this the high high volume selling cycles in a really critical way that allows you to extend deeper discounts to high value audiences while still providing discounts to the masses during these critical times for retailers and e-commerce brands and things like that. Leveraging a company like Shar allows brands to provide discounted offers to high value audiences while keeping that margin dilution in check in a really critical way too.
22:06 One of the things I wanted to bring back because you you made some good points about it, but you know, we live in such an era of growing concern about data privacy that we should I I want to get pick your brain a little bit more on this, but what are some of the best practices for for gathering and utilizing customer insights to be able to deliver these personalized experiences, but as you mentioned, building trust and maintaining that strong consumer trust and brand affinity.
22:40 Yeah, this is my one of my favorite topics is customer data and and privacy. Ultimately brands must treat their customer data as a privilege. It’s not a right and they must consistently demonstrate that they are trustworthy stewards of this information. They do this with transparency and consent. being crystal clear about what data is being collected and why and how it will be used obtaining a explicit informed consent especially for sensitive data share models it share these model is actually built with this foundation as consumers actively share this data directly with the brand they are transacting with the value exchange we have to ensure that consumers receive a tangible clear benefit in exchange for sharing their data Personalization shouldn’t feel intrusive. It should feel valuable and helpful. And data minimization. There’s a lot of brands that are collecting a lot of data. So much data that they don’t even know what to do with it. We should really only be collecting the data that is truly necessary for the intended personalization. We shouldn’t be avoiding or we shouldn’t be hoarding unnecessary information. It’s just not what our consumers want us to be doing. It’s also not what our engineers want us to be doing either. Quite frankly, we need to be prioritizing the data that we need, the data sources that are most relevant to to moving the consumers along that customer journey in their path to to loyalty with with the brand.
24:23 Yeah, well said. Well said. So I know sometimes we can look at the economy right now and things are could look be looking a little grim but it’s always it’s always good to look ahead and and talk a little bit about what what kind of emerging personalization techniques are out there and some of the technologies of the future. I mean, we talk a lot about AI on this podcast almost all the time, but what do you what do you see, Laura, about some of the technologies that hold the most promise, I guess, for for retail brands that are really trying to unlock sustainable growth and of course further maximize CLV and in in what is proving to be such an evolving retail landscape year by year.
25:13 Yeah. So I think we talked honestly we talked a little bit about some of those emerging areas in the conversation with our our advanced segmentation areas and I think that AI to your point is definitely in an evolving space and I think that that that without having that data infrastructure in play brands aren’t going to be able to take advantage of of these next generation technologies in the way that they need to. real time contextual personalization it personalization I can’t talk today is is really one of those critical areas where if if a brand isn’t already doing advanced segmentation this is going to be harder for them to take advantage of but I do think that brands that are in that advanced state they are going to be able to leverage real-time personalization in a really critical way that is going to incorporate both the behavior as well as the location of that individual and and be able to use AI and and machine learning to predict and anticipate the needs of of that consumer based off of where they are. generative AI for content is going to be a really cool way for them to again continue to to move on that hyperpersonalization journey with content that has been curated specifically for that individual. And and that again is going to rely on those data silos being removed so that that information can freely flow with across the organization in order to allow that AI component to come into play.
26:59 We are seeing some brands doing this in a really cool way with adjusting the creative on their homepage based off of who the individual is. being able to adjust the imagery based off of who’s interacting with with the content on socials and things like that as well. And then another area is going to be in the the more ethical identity resolution and and consent orchestration. Again, if if brands are able to continue to or the brands that are able to continue to pull that consumer data in a consent forward way, helping the consumer to understand where and how their data is being leveraged. they’ll be able to un know who that consumer is and be able to drive the marketing touch points in a really consent forward way for those for those consumers. So there’s some really exciting things that are happening with AI and machine learning. And I’m excited to continue to see how how this space evolves with with our brands.
28:12 Yeah, I’m excited. It’s going to be interesting to see what what what all this looks like in in just a matter of couple years.
28:20 I don’t even think it’s going to take years. It’s it I feel like it’s that Tom Cruise movie. What is it? Vanilla Sky. Feels like it’s all coming to to reality very quickly here.
28:31 That’s true. It is. Yeah. Only a couple months. We should we should catch up on another podcast literally in six months and see in that period of time. But Laura, I want to thank you. I have one more question for you and before go because I think it all this kind of needs sort of a if if brands aren’t on this track already, they need a fundamental shift in in mindset and in in order to achieve these goals and and even within within their organization, the culture. What have you seen in terms of that successful brands actually achieve this and what are they doing in order to truly embrace this this customer centric approach that we’ve been discussing here on today’s podcast?
29:21 Yeah. So, I read an article earlier this week in Forbes about how American Airlines chief customer officer recently created a customer experience advisory board in quotes customer experience advisory board for the company and leaders from Disney, Marriott, Four Seasons, Walmart, and a whole slew of other top brands are part of this board advising American Airlines on how to not just service their customers but anticipate their needs. The article states, and I quote, “Great brands don’t just react to customer expectations, they anticipate them.” Customer centricity must be at the core of a brand that desires to anticipate the needs of their customers. It must be part of every business function’s DNA for the brand to be able to stay that nimble to react and anticipate to the needs of its customers. And data is its superpower. Specifically, brands who desire to make the shift must focus on how they move from transactional to relational. The shift from viewing customers as a one-time buyer to recognizing them as the individuals they are with whom to build a long-term relationship. They must move from the silos to unified. They need to break down departmental silos across marketing, sales, customer experience, product, finance, all of those areas to create a single shared view of the customer and their journey. This requires strong cross functional leadership and shared KPIs.
30:59 We need to move from campaign centric to journey centric. The focus moves from launching individual campaigns to orchestrating continuous adaptive customer journeys across all touch points. We need to move from data driven to data humanized. While data remains critical, the shift is going to be towards how to use data to understand and empathize with humans rather than just optimizing the numbers. And we need to move from a just sell to a serve and add value mentality. Recognizing that providing consistent personalized value and solving customer problems is our surest path to loyalty and sales. We also need to embrace the agility and experimentation. I treat my team as scientists. This is a cultural shift towards rapid testing, learning, iterating based on personalization, performance rather than staying rigid and keeping with long-term planning. And then I’m going to say it one more time, the privacy, privacy by design culture, integrating privacy and ethical data practices into the core of all personalization efforts is critical from the outset. and it can’t just be an afterthought in in that data collection process.
32:24 Laura, I think that I love that answer because I think it encompasses all of the themes and touch points that we are talking about today on this podcast. So, I thank you so much. Laura Compton, SVP of global marketing at Sheer ID, wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts just on everything that we’ve talked about today, but just being a great partner of the Millennium Alliance and having these conversations. It makes leaders better what they do and it’s partners like you that that can come on and share valuable solutions that are really transforming the enterprise. So Laura, I hope we get to talk again on another podcast. But this was so much fun and we’ll see you soon.
33:13 Thanks Connor. I really appreciate your time today and thank you Millennium Alliance for having me.
33:19 [Music]
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