“Why, o why, cant’ shopping online be more like going to the corner store, where they know me, know what I buy, and give me personal service?” Online shopping critiques nearly always include this plaintive plea. Sometimes a site is applauded for coming close, some of the time. More often, a site or company isContinue reading “Loving/Hating Digital Small-Town Life”
Author Archives: Sue Aldrich
Personalization Trends in Sydney, Australia
image by freeimageslive.co.uk – aussiestock I got a glimpse of the trends in personalization in Australia, when I participated in a networking event in Sydney yesterday. Conventional wisdom has it that it takes two years for markets and trends emerging in the USA to reach Australia. But based on what I learned at the meeting,Continue reading “Personalization Trends in Sydney, Australia”
Personalization Maturity Curves
I see companies’ efforts to personalization the online customer experience maturing on two levels: personalization strategy maturity, and the maturity of the organization’s capabilities. You might assume that the organization’s capabilities are the gating factor in achieving maturity. Ultimately, capabilities are the constraint to personalization progress, but the first hur-dle is deciding what personalization isContinue reading “Personalization Maturity Curves”
The Science of Personalization: Guess, but Test
Not long ago I worked with a stomach-driven organization. A stomach-driven marketing organization starts the day with a guess. Red! Make all the pages red, customers will buy! The team scrambles, the pages are red. No buying? It’s the weather. Lots of buying? It’s the red. Being stomach-driven worked when your competitors were also stomach-driven.Continue reading “The Science of Personalization: Guess, but Test”
Seeing Your Personalization Vision
An important early step in developing your personalization strategy is articulating, communicating, and committing to a vision. I’m not talking about a mission-statement kind of vision, or a string of wonderful words that make everyone feel good. I’m talking about having a clear idea of what the personalized experience will be like for your customers,Continue reading “Seeing Your Personalization Vision”
4 Steps to Personalization Success
Personalization is gardening. It’s energizing to image the garden in all its perfection. But after you plant it, you have to take care of it. Probably nearly every day. You’re not done until you decide you don’t want it any more. Companies unsuccessful with personalization think buying technology is enough. Or adding product recommendations toContinue reading “4 Steps to Personalization Success”
Top 5 Factors in Choosing a Recommendation System
I have published detailed requirements for recommendations systems, with at least a hundred questions you should consider when evaluating a solution. But a hundred details is not where you want to start your technology selection process. You start by narrowing your focus to find your most likely partners. I think there are just five factorsContinue reading “Top 5 Factors in Choosing a Recommendation System”
Certona’s Resonance Personalization Platform: Saving Retailers’ Wetware
Today’s marketers suffer from incomplete digital marketing platforms. They need many tools to support marketing functions across the channels and touchpoints their customers use. In fact, the current solution landscape offers too many tools, each its own silo. The result is that marketing teams find themselves using an artisanal marketing platform. Artisanal + food =Continue reading “Certona’s Resonance Personalization Platform: Saving Retailers’ Wetware”
Preparing for Do Not Track: Personalization and Privacy in 2013
Do Not Track legislation and similar initiatives are at odds with the techniques used to personalize the customer experience. On the one hand, advocates of consumer privacy demand that people control the information that is collected about them, and how it is used. On the other, the web sites and advertising networks want to adjustContinue reading “Preparing for Do Not Track: Personalization and Privacy in 2013”
2013 Prediction: Initiatives to Regulate Privacy #fail
Attempts to regulate consumer privacy will have no more than an emotional impact in 2013. Meaningful restrictions on data collection by advertisers and publishers will not happen, as legislators and regulators fail to achieve consensus and citizen support. Here are three reasons regulatory initiatives will not have any real impact in 2013. First, persistence andContinue reading “2013 Prediction: Initiatives to Regulate Privacy #fail”
On Target 