#26-From B2C to B2Me: Why Personalization is the way to engage Digital Consumers?

Sidhartha Sharma’s Book: The Digital Event Horizon

Personalization as a business strategy is all about knowing your customer and also what the customer really wants. If you have enough data about your customer’s behavior, buying preferences, expectations, channels then delivering them a product, service, or experience in a frictionless manner becomes possible.

All companies will move from the B2C model to B2Me. Personalziation has big implications for all industries where the mobile-first (all screens) and in-store experience matter and customers are looking for recommendations.

Due to advances in artificial intelligence, data analytics, cloud, and quantum computing, the consumer-facing businesses will move towards personalization. Customers are willing to share their personal data for personalized services and experiences.

The companies can store, update, and analyze individual customer data to find what it takes to sell you ethically.

As long as done ethically, without the intent to manipulate and within data privacy guidelines, customers enjoy personalized offers, products, and experiences.

All the companies are running to build a customer database and individual customer profiles. Instead of targeting age, gender, or geography demographic, the data generated by the consumer will be used to offer personalized services, offers, products, and promotions.

Netflix is the best example of personalization in OTT/Streaming. It helps you create your own profile, and then highlights the content, makes recommendations based on your previous searches and engagement.

Netflix-Best in class Personalization model in OTT

If you are searching to buy anything online, then the web and push notifications will bring you the best deals both online and offline.

How the shift to personalization started and where is it going?

1. Personalization started first with digital marketing: We all have already begun to get personalized advertisements or mailers from big brands that we have permitted to use our data. Consumers do not mind sharing their data with trusted brands if it is being used to enrich their customer experience.
2. Building and engaging digital community: All big companies,
   especially the ones that do not have an existing user base like TMT
   companies, are striving to build digital communities. The Starbucks
   The rewards program on its app gathers a variety of data on customer spending and preferences. Thus, Starbucks can personalize the experience for every customer based on their unique preferences and spending habits.
3. Personalization works in retail too: Macy’s and Sephora leverage
   GPS tech, to trigger personalized offers to consumers when they are
   in the store’s vicinity

Images-Sephora

The New Normal and New Applications

1. Social and e-commerce companies know your shopping patterns:
   Amazon, Facebook, and Google know a lot about you based on the
   online search, social chats, and browsing you have been doing. It is
   common for these companies to know when you are planning to
   buy or rent a house, change your job, or planning to start a family
   just by your search data and the things you began to buy.
2. Personalization at scale is possible: Due to recent technological advancements in AI, cloud computing personalization at scale has become a reality. All this would not have been possible in the pre-digital age.
3. Privacy is the future of social and digital: There is a negative side to this as well both in public as well as private sector domains. Brands and institutions which leak or sell the data of the customers without their approval will lose consumer trust forever. The Indian ministry of
   road transport and highways department manages the Centralized
   National Registry through the National Informatics Centre. The database has approximately 250 million vehicle registration records and 150 million driving license records. The Road Transport and Highways Ministry developed a Bulk Data Sharing Policy. Businesses seeking bulk data can obtain it for INR 30 million, and educations institutes seeking the data could purchase it for “research purposes and internal use only” for a price of INR 5 lacs. In the private sector, a prominent social media provider has been accused in a few cases where there was a breach of consumer data by third-party platforms on its network.
4. The personalized experience will soon expand to physical retail: The stores you visit will already have your profile and expose you most to offers and brands that you like to buy. Inventory will be managed based on the customer’s profile who shop at the store or the locality where it is situated.

Best regards,

Sidhartha Sharma

Digital Strategy and Transformation Expert