Consumer privacy and primary research
Editor’s note: Gary Elstein is a founding member of data collection firm, Rep Data. Aldy Keene serves as president and CEO of Loyalty Research Center.
Marketers and business leaders are entering a new era of audience understanding and marketing effectiveness. Consumer privacy demands are rising, and more regulations and practices are coming into play to meet these demands – such as the demise of third-party cookies. We are beginning to see the downstream impact of how recent trends toward privacy are impacting marketing effectiveness by channel across all types of businesses. The most successful companies are pursuing new ways to understand their customers and target audiences that do not rely on anonymous data alone. We recently conducted a study to find out exactly how Fortune 500 and innovative technology companies are addressing a cookieless world, and future-proofing their businesses.
To get the data we needed, we used a respondent recruitment method to find very specific individuals for our study. The survey was conducted among a niche audience of 175 director-level, executive and C-level marketers at leading B2B, B2C and B2B2C companies in more than 15 vertical industries, ranging from financial services to technology and from manufacturing to consumer goods. To ensure we reached the right people, we used an approach that identifies individuals and verifies that each one meets profiling criteria. The survey was complemented by qualitative interviews with industry experts, and the analysis of hundreds of primary data transcripts from investment professionals.
We found that the impending loss of cookies has led to structural changes in what actions, systems and channels are most effective. Leaders are reallocating marketing budgets, implementing new changes to their technology stack and placing heightened emphasis on primary data collection. Drilling down further, we found that marketing organizations have taken center stage when it comes to establishing new ways to manage cross-channel identity resolution, while still focusing on the ability to improve current performance. We analyzed which organizations had the highest performance, based on a number of criteria (such as lead generation and conversion) to understand what areas have led to clear differentiation. The results identified return on investment from advancements in customer data platforms through the usage of server-side tagging and artificial intelligence, along with another critical piece: primary research.
The rise of primary research is good for marketing research – if it’s done right
Our data indicated that among both B2B and B2C distribution models, marketers are reprioritizing market research, such as panels, surveys and voice of customer (VOC) initiatives to identify contextual segments. This rise of primary research makes good sense: firsthand data from audiences can help to fill in the blanks that the “cookiepocolypse” is leaving behind. Qualitative discussions with leaders indicated that the ability to take market research methods into the new era, and evolve them to meet new demands and needs, will be critical.
B2C companies were the earliest movers when it came to employing new techniques around primary data for audience understanding and overall marketing effectiveness. As they are focusing on customer conversions in the funnel, such as minimizing cart abandonment, they are complementing use of new technology, such as identity resolution solutions, with traditional research approaches to ensure they are focusing investment on the correct audiences. Specifically, they are augmenting anonymous data with primary collection, such as a panel or VOC, to identify demographic traits and patterns of behavior for prospecting.
Data quality and primary research
Data quality continues to be of utmost importance and is a key performance driver for companies in this segment. On average, 74% of our respondents prioritize improving data quality across their customer lists. Insights must be solid to inform and optimize business functions such as pricing strategies, customer segmentation, user experience, offer design, packaging, as well as informing effective methods for sales and marketing.
This trend toward market research is good news for researchers, especially if we can deliver the right insights from even the most niche audiences. If companies are using primary data to achieve some of the personalization and targeting lost with the disappearance of cookies, then they need to make sure that they are reaching the right target audience. This requires working with data collection companies that can deliver feasibility and representativity even for complex and sophisticated business models and industries.
New ways to understand audiences
Today, more than 90% of marketers currently rely on cookies to not only track site visits, but also understand cross-channel and cross-device interactions. These efforts are heavily impacted by recent trends toward privacy, and forward-thinking leaders are seeking out new ways to generate audience understanding and targeted segmentation. Traditional market research approaches will continue to grow and take a front seat in the marketer’s toolkit, especially as the privacy landscape continues to transform.