Author: admin_poj

How can data and technology empower businesses to understand their customers better and deliver hyper-personalised experiences?

The answer: keep it human.

Data is powerful – But it’s not the whole story

Most companies are already collecting vast amounts of customer data. In 2023, data removal experts Incogni analysed 180 shopping apps across 59 countries. Nike and H&M topped the list, each collecting a staggering 17 data points per purchase – including purchase history, financial information, photos, video, location, performance data and even messages.

This data is the easiest to gather and brilliant at telling you what has happened in the past. It is the data of understanding, according to data leader, Aleksandra Semenenko. It is valuable but limited. Aleksandra understood this in a lightbulb moment in her own career. She shares: “It was the first time when I realised that everything that I do in front of a computer actually needs to be absorbed by human beings and agreed by human beings.” 

From transactions to emotional connections

More than this, though, she adds that data isn’t just about efficiency. It’s a tool for building relationships – the fuel for creating fans from customers. It can be used to delve into what a customer’s values are and therefore where the company’s values intersect. As Aleksandra neatly explains: “For a person to become a fan of a brand, they need to feel an emotional connection with the values of these brand; that their values are aligned.”

“For a person to become a fan of a brand, they need to feel an emotional connection with the values of these brand; that their values are aligned.”

This means tapping into qualitative insights that give numbers context and emotional weight. As author Dan Heath wrote in Switch: “Data are just summaries of thousands of stories – tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.” Once you have these stories, you can use them to create marketing activation strategies, pricing strategies and product recommendation strategies. They can help you design your future interactions with that customer to maintain the emotional connection. 

As Aleksandra explains, this makes the customer feel that they have your attention. Transparency is also key to this. Companies must share what data they are collecting and why. Customers want to know what they are getting in return. “It’s give and take,” says Aleksandra: “You ask for their data, so give something else in return like enhanced customer experience, better promotions, great discounts and great events.” Ultimately, when customers feel they’re being seen, not just analysed, trust is built.

How to avoid data overload

But let’s not shy away from the fact that it isn’t a straightforward task to find the gems you need. How do you not get weighed down by information paralysis? This is where companies must use their “human brain” and set themselves specific questions to use data to answer: What are the values of my brand? What hypotheses do I want to test first? What decisions am I trying to inform?

Companies must use their “human brain” and set themselves specific questions to use the data to answer.

Aleksandra emphasises that you should have more than solely your data team involved in determining these data foundations. If you deploy new tools – for example, AI, make sure that everyone is on board with them. All key players – from marketing to product to leadership – should come on a journey together to find the value in the data. “The data slowly but surely will drive them to do better and better,” she says. This will also allow you to be agile in your decision making when you get answers. It also means the company will be more resilient – with everyone on the same page – if you hit any roadblocks. 

Enhance not replace

The end game is to use data to enhance the company’s emotional intelligence rather than replace human connection. However, the obsession with collecting more data is lazy – smart companies use what they already have, and use it better. As Aleksandra explains, each piece of data will provide a piece of the puzzle, which – when assembled with care – will create a picture of who your customer is.

This picture might change as humans do in their tastes and needs – but data can be used to help you find the new pieces of the puzzle to replace the outdated. As Aleksandra explains: “It’s actually not enough to know your partner – the customer – really well. You need to make an effort to maintain this interest also, because you change and your partner changes, and you need to be in sync all the time.” 

In fact, you need to be customer obsessed and then in return, you might make fans of your customers by winning their loyalty. Yes, data can be a tricky beast to conquer. It’s sometimes an inexact and challenging taskmaster, but you must use it to achieve a simple mantra, says Aleksandra: “If you want people to love you, you need to love them back…just in a GDPR compliant way.”

In the race to automate, optimise, and personalise, don’t forget the human heart of data. Data doesn’t build loyalty – people do. The brands that win won’t be those with the most data, but those that use it to make every customer feel seen, understood, and valued.

How do you build engaged communities around your brand? The most successful businesses design for fans not customers. They focus on the human not the transactional. They are innovative but also sincere, delivering compelling products that have the brand’s DNA embedded. But it’s easy to hit the wrong note. 

I found someone who knows exactly what to avoid and what to push for. Philippe Roucoule has had a hugely varied, 30-year career. He held senior roles in F&B businesses and retail before Disney called. After a decade, he moved to become Senior Vice President at Warner Bros Discovery. In every role, he has worked with partners to make his brands come to life in products that connect with customers every day. These customers become fans; and this is the key to his success. 

It’s no secret that forging an emotional connection with customers is a tool that can elevate a business. An article in the Harvard Business Review detailed how diverse businesses have done just this. As the authors write: “The most sophisticated firms are making emotional connection part of a broad strategy that involves every function in the value chain, from product development and marketing to sales and service.”

It’s game play straight out of the sports industry where fans have always been fans (but now have everything from experiences to merchandise to buy to proudly show off their loyalties). According to 90min.com, Nike topped the list for shirt and merchandise sales in 2023, making £153m from Barcelona’s merchandise. These are products bought by fans not customers; and it’s big money. 

Creating that emotional connection

Let me make this clear – it’s not the sole responsibility of your marketing department. As Philippe explains: “They are not the guardians of how the brand comes to life for fans.” Each person in a business – and partners too – share this responsibility. It’s built on trust. This means they have ownership and it changes creative thinking. 

Philippe sums this up. “Gone are the days of saying, I’m going to put the logo of my brand on the product, and that’s called licensing. It’s not the case”, he explains. “You have to be much more inclusive in the way you look at it. You have to be able to actually translate the essence and the DNA of the brand onto the product itself. It becomes really symbiotic.”

“You have to make sure it’s right for the fans, because you don’t get a second chance.”

If you get it wrong – especially if you are not authentic – the fans will pick up on this. If they are emotionally invested in a brand, anything that doesn’t do it justice will immediately be on their radar. As Philippe states: “You have to make sure it’s right for the fans, because you don’t get a second chance.” He admits walking away from deals with “multi-billion dollar” businesses for exactly this reason. “[They were] easy money, but they weren’t right for the brand,” he shares.  

But when you get it right…

The companies that have fostered the emotional connection – making fans of customers – win not only fans but sometimes lifelong loyalty. Philippe holds Lego up as an example of how a laser-focus on humans has changed a company’s fortunes. 

The company was in dire straits in 2003 with a reported $800 million debt. News reports suggested it was just weeks away from collapse. A new CEO, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, was brought in. Key to his new strategy was created partnerships with huge brands including Stars Wars. 

Not only did Lego fans go wild for the new launches but Lego also won over the fans of the iconic brands it partnered with. Lego doesn’t disclose how much these branded products bring in for the company, but its revenue was DKK 65.9 billion (nearly 9 billion euros) in FY 2023, which was up 2% despite a declining toy market.

Yes – there will be people who will not come on that journey with your brand. Businesses need to stay connected with those who will. As Philippe says: “…give fans a spectrum of options for them to be able to connect with a brand through a multiplicity of products – and products that are relevant to them.”

Measuring loyalty

To unravel your fans’ preferences – and be nimble – you need data. Warner processes vast amounts of data using AI. But what do you do with this data? Philippe argues that you must have clarity of vision on where you want to be. This then gives you the problems that you need to solve; but all with an end goal in sight. These are your metrics and the data will tell you if you are hitting them. Are you solving the problems? Are you delivering what your fans want? Keep focussed on this. 

“If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.”

“Starting with the end in mind makes sure that you don’t get distracted along that path. You can go a bit right and a bit left, but you know where you’re heading,” explains Philippe. 

He adds categorically: “If you can’t measure it, don’t do it.” Success is a measure of the emotional connection that you have with your fans. To be agile and reactionary – to keep delivering – you need to measure this engagement so you can build when things are working and tweak when they’re not. This rigorous approach to getting it right – along with authenticity and consistency – are what makes fans of customers; and keeps people engaging with your brand even when the competition is fierce.