[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/10\/21\/personalization-paradox-marketing\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/10\/21\/personalization-paradox-marketing\/","headline":"How can marketers fix the personalization paradox?","name":"How can marketers fix the personalization paradox?","description":"Customers want personalization, so how can you deliver it when they don't want to give up their data? That's the personalization paradox.","datePublished":"2016-10-21","dateModified":"2021-11-29","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/christopher-koch\/#Person","name":"Christopher Koch","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/christopher-koch\/","identifier":190,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3a963276e41213d9d9d4cd66a9c64364a6dbd0d35f772fd11fe860d943195888?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3a963276e41213d9d9d4cd66a9c64364a6dbd0d35f772fd11fe860d943195888?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/thumbnail-0e4fe894b50c962389189a42e697a937.jpeg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/thumbnail-0e4fe894b50c962389189a42e697a937.jpeg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/10\/21\/personalization-paradox-marketing\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/cdp-customer-data-platform-solution\/cdp-customer-data-platform-general\/","name":"CDP: Customer Data Platform","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_data_platform"]},"Consent data management",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/customer-data\/","name":"Customer Data","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_data","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q56278300"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/customer-experience\/","name":"Customer Experience","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_experience","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q984142"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/trends-commerce\/","name":"Trends","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fad","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q787045"]}],"wordCount":712,"keywords":["Customer Engagement","Customer Experience | CX","Data","Marketing","Personalization"],"articleBody":"Customers are signaling that they want more personalized treatment from companies. In fact, a recent Accenture survey revealed that nearly 60 percent of respondents prefer\u00a0real-time promotions and offers. That may seem like great news for marketers.\u00a0But personalization strategies also come with risk.Personalization creates more intimacy in the\u00a0customer relationship, which can lead to more sales and loyalty. This promise of a tighter bond with customers has driven personalization to the\u00a0top of marketers\u2019 strategic agendas\u00a0for 2016.However, this approach\u00a0can threaten the most important aspect of the customer relationship: trust.      Customer trust: Definition, value, and 6 powerful ways to earn it                As business processes become increasingly automated, companies are even more reliant on customer trust and emotional intelligence.      The tug-of-war over dataFor personalization to work, brands need to gather detailed information about customers. But when asked whether they are willing to give up that information in return for more targeted products and promotions,\u00a0many customers balk.\u00a0Of the Accenture survey respondents, for example, only 20% were willing to reveal their location, and just 14 percent would consider parting with their browsing history.This personalization paradox, as it is known, has been around for decades. But it\u2019s going to become a bigger issue as digital connectivity increases and the data that customers generate through their activities\u2014whether it be jogging with a Fitbit or refilling a fridge connected to the Internet of Things\u2014outline their lives in ever-finer digital detail.Complicating the situation, most customers aren\u2019t very well-informed when it comes to data privacy. For example, a survey by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that\u00a054 percent of respondents\u00a0wrongly believe a website\u2019s privacy policy means that the site would not share their information without their permission.      Smart home AI for digital dummies                Smart home AI presents tremendous opportunities for the utilities industry to capitalize on simplification of connectivity.      Beyond the personalization paradox: Focus on trust and valueHow can companies reduce customer\u00a0fear, ignorance, and uncertainty about personalization and privacy?\u00a0Research\u00a0has found that customers are more likely to take advantage of personalization from companies they trust and that offer them real value in exchange for their information.It\u2019s important to emphasize trust in the customer relationship because it\u2019s at a low ebb. For example, just 7 percent of customers say the offers they receive from companies are consistently relevant. And 27 percent have said they\u2019ve stopped visiting a website or mobile app after receiving irrelevant information or product recommendations.      Your obsession with demand gen is going to suffocate your B2B marketing                We absolutely must stop measuring B2B marketing success in terms of campaign clicks, quarterly reports, and lead volumes alone. The B2B brands who will win are the ones we\u2019ll remember.      In this kind of a climate, companies must demonstrate that they are worthy of customers\u2019 trust before pushing too hard on personalization. Research has shown that there are two components of trust:Confidence.\u00a0Customers must believe that the company can\u00a0provide a quality product or service.Benevolence.\u00a0Customers must believe that the company is willing to consider every customer\u2019s\u00a0self-interest above their own.The benevolence aspect of trust is particularly important when it comes to personalization. In this regard, companies demonstrate benevolence by offering clear, understandable data collection and usage policies and by giving customers control over their information and how it is used. Customers are hungry for that control. A Pew Research Center survey found that\u00a090 percent of those surveyed\u00a0want to decide what information is collected about them.Once trust is established, personalization has to offer real value. That value could come through useful services or discounts, for example. The key is to avoid stepping over the invisible line from cool to creepy, such as the time when\u00a0Target sent coupons for diapers to an expectant teen\u00a0before her father knew of the pregnancy.Of course, the personalization paradox and online privacy are issues as big as the Internet. Customers will continue to fear for their privacy as long as\u00a0data breaches continue\u00a0and irrelevant and offensive offers continue to hit their inboxes. But focusing on trust is the beginning of a solution.  Marketing that clicks.Results that rock.Take the product tour HERE.\u00a0"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2016","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"10","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/10\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"21","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/10\/\/21\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How can marketers fix the personalization paradox?","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/10\/21\/personalization-paradox-marketing\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]