Brands Are Overconfident With Their Privacy Approach

Most brands believe the future without third-party cookies will have a moderate or large impact on how they acquire customers, and their ability to deliver quality customer service to them, according to a report by customer engagement and data management Redpoint Global with the Harris Poll. While brands are setting plans in motion for this reality, there's a gap between how confident companies are feeling about their ability to deliver good customer service, which relies on customer data, and how people feel brands are performing. “The gap is multi-dimensional,” said John Nash, chief marketing and strategy officer at Redpoint Global. “Consumers are expected to be understood. They expect things to be personalized, and they expect it to be in a consistent manner,” he said. The company commissioned the Harris Poll to conduct quantitative research amongst 150 marketers and 1,500 consumers across the U.S. and found several gaps between a marketers’ consumer experience strategy and peoples' expectations. The Data Avalanche and What to Do With It First-party quality data in a cookie-less world Consumers feel privacy is an area that brands are falling short, followed by consistency and customer understanding. Whereas brands recognize customer understanding to be among their top challenges, the report reads. A world without third-party cookies has marketers concerned. A majority (65%) admit that this shift is likely to have a big or moderate impact on their ability to acquire new customers. While 71% admit it will have a big to moderate impact on their ability to deliver an exceptional customer experience. Many brands recognize the need to offer something of value to people in return for collecting their data: 57% are considering incentives, while 53% are investing more in first-party data systems and 51% are pursuing alternative identifiers. The report suggests several options brands can consider to incentivize people, including tailored experiences and offers, plus features like location-based in-store pick-up. The study found only 39% of people were willing to let all brands use tracking cookies to improve their experience. That increases to 67% who are willing to let some brands they explicitly approve use tracking. Marketers, however, need to keep in mind the key theme of consumers getting something in return. Otherwise, the report show, about 74% of consumers are willing to opt out of all cookies on devices and browsers, if given the option. Almost all marketers heavily rely on data quality and investment to drive marketing effectiveness. Nearly 99% of marketers, according to the research, prioritize data quality and feel they are making good progress. But consumer sentiments suggest otherwise: Only about two-thirds of consumers are confident that brands have a high-quality view of their data. There is also a discrepancy in how both these audiences perceive the challenges when it comes to customer data. For brands, inaccurate data, difficulty to act on and fragmented or incomplete data sets pose the biggest concerns. On the other hand, consumers feel that brands have data that is outdated, inaccurate, and inconsistent. “With data quality as the conduit to much of the customer experience (e.g., personalization), it is crucial that marketers ensure the information they have on their customers covers all of these bases,” reads the report.