february 2019 the abcs of customer data in marketing · 360-degree view of the customer that...

1Copyright ©2019 Deloitte Development, LLC.

The ABCs of CustomerData in Marketing

Strategies to help marketers make sense of customer data systems and platforms

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 9


T H EO F

I N M A R K E T I N G

ABCsCustomer Data

Creating deeper one-on-one connections with customers

is increasingly important in today’s hyper-competitive,

data driven marketing environment. To be able to

succeed in your strategy, you need to get three things

right: complete and accurate data; intelligent decisions

based on insightful analysis of that data; and precise

delivery that converts decisions into effective action.

As a foundational first step, getting the data right is no easy

feat. Years of bolt-on systems and clunky workarounds

have left most marketing organizations with data that is

highly siloed, fragmented, and difficult to access, and the

solutions to those data problems are themselves an alphabet

soup of customer data technologies for marketing.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Data Management

Platforms (DMP). Master Data Management (MDM). Customer

Data Platforms (CDP). Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW).

It’s enough to make

your head spin.

Each of these systems has a very distinct purpose, and like

a harmonious orchestra, together they can deliver omni-

channel insights and help marketers deliver personalized,

relevant, and resonant experiences to customers across all

channels. However, many technology vendors are trying to

address the need with multiple products in their ecosystem

as the panacea for all customer data management challenges,

making it hard to know what’s what. This primer helps

to spell out what each type of customer data system is

designed to do—and even more important, what it is not

designed to do—so you can make informed decisions and

extract more value from your customer data investments.


Evolution of customer dataSystems related to customer data are often pitched as the cure-all for every marketing problem, with vendors constantly tacking on new bells

and whistles that try to stretch their core capabilities into adjacent areas. But if you look at a system’s initial purpose and capabilities, it’s typically

easier to understand what it is truly good at—and what is more likely marketing spin or wishful thinking. (Figure 1)

Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW)This system was specifically designed to aggregate and store all data domains across the enterprise. Although usage varies from one organization to the next, some see EDW as the centralized location to aggregate all the latest and greatest data, while others see it as simply a place to send all data to be captured, stored, organized by business subject, and archived for a rainy day. Because EDW often lack a clear, focused data strategy, the refresh rate for their multiple data feeds can range from real time to once a day, once a month, or even once a year. Consequently, while the data might eventually find its way into the EDW, by the time it gets there it will likely be too stale to act on in a fast-paced marketing setting.

Designed to support the purchase and placement of targeted online advertising by creating audience segments based on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-party data. Later, DMP evolved to include personalization features that leveraged these audience segments effectively for additional use cases in other channels such as web. As such, DMP is a valuable piece of the customer data puzzle—but with a primary focus on expanding marketers’ reach to new and existing audiences at an aggregate group level, not at a truly personalized one-to-one level.

Approaches the customer data challenge exclusively from the enterprise side, not the marketing side. As data became increasingly important across the enterprise, organizations found themselves with a jumble of systems and data sources that were disjointed, redundant, and often conflicting. Master data management is an attempt to bring order to the chaos by establishing a single master version of the truth for all data—not just customer data, but all data domains across the enterprise.

MDM creates a standardized “golden record” of commonly used attributes and data sets across the organization; however, from a marketing perspective it may fall short of providing a full 360-degree view of the customer that includes robust details on customer behaviors, transactions, and interactions. Though you can extend an MDM to build a Customer 360 profile, there are often less expensive options that require less time to stand up.

CRM systems were specifically created to manage interactions of prospects and customers across sales and customer service sitting on top of a customer database. Over time, some CRM systems expanded their scope to encompass a broader range of marketing features and customer touchpoints. However, their data primarily revolves around known prospects and customers—not comprehensive data or data for individuals the company has not already interacted with. Also, most systems are designed to address a set of sales and customer service use-cases (e.g., What must be done next to make a sale? Or how can a customer support incident ticket be resolved?).

Allows you to bridge the gap between CRM, DMP, MDM, and EDW. Like MDM and EDW, CDP were designed from the get-go to be an integrated data repository. However, unlike MDM and EDW, they specifically focus on customer data and the needs of the marketing function—giving marketing a powerful new tool to extract the most value from customer data. By integrating the customer data from all the other systems—and connecting the dots in new ways (for example, linking anonymous profiles to known customer profiles on a regular basis), CDP can provide a single, integrated 360-degree view of the customer. This enables breakthrough insights about customer behaviors, intents, and preferences, and makes customer data available to all other systems in the marketing ecosystem, effectively making every system smarter about the customer in real time. There are many SaaS options but more and more organizations are looking for ways to host critical customer data behind their firewall in their private cloud of choice.

Master Data Management (MDM) Customer

Relationship Manager (CRM)

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

Data Managment Platform (DMP)

Sources: 1. Deloitte Consulting, LLP, 2018; 2.“Evolving from Data Management to Master Data Management.” SAS Global Forum, 2012; 3.“Advantages of Implementing an Enterprise Data Warehouse.” Salesforce; 4.“A Short History of Data Warehousing.” Dataversity; 5.“Brief History of Data Warehousing.” Dataversity.


Digging deeper into customer data systemsEach type of customer data system offers unique and important value to the marketing organization. And while certain features might overlap,

no single system can truly handle all of a marketer’s needs. To help you identify core use cases across platforms, here is a detailed summary that

highlights the key similarities and differences. (Figure 2)

EDW MDM CRM DMP CDP

Value Offered to Organization

Enterprise Data Warehouses (EDW) were designed to be the data storage repository for all structured business data for use with business intelligence and analytics tools. Acts as the centralized location of all data across the enterprise and retains historical customer data for additional insights.

Master Data Management (MDM) was designed to master one or more data domains for the enterprise. Mastering the customer domain means having one “golden record” for customer data that can be used for Customer 360 and be leveraged across the entire enterprise.

Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM) were designed to manage and optimize the interactions with current and potential customers across sales and service.

Data Management Platforms (DMP) were designed to optimize media spend by managing audience data to find lookalikes and re-targeting through cookie matching. They can also help target curated audience profiles and discover new audiences.

Customer Data Platforms (CDP) were specifically designed to support and empower marketing. By integrating data from all other CRM, BI, MarTech and AdTech systems, a persistent customer ID and unified customer profile are generated to drive customer engagement and experiences in real time.

Potential Limitations

Not designed with marketers in mind. Data sets are too large and oftentimes not the most up to date for real-time personalization and marketing purposes.

Not designed with marketers in mind. Data to be mastered typically requires a common definition across the enterprise, precluding customer interactions and behaviors.

Not designed to process high volumes of structured and unstructured data in real-time. Core competency is not to merge, de-dupe, and hygiene data, nor to expose data bi-directionally with other marketing tools. Cannot track anonymous users.

Not designed to manage personally identifiable information (PII) at the individual customer level; focused on audience level marketing. Not designed to expose data bidirectionally with other marketing tools.

Not designed to onboard audience data for optimized media spend. Not designed to hold data that cannot be acted upon (e.g. Operations, HR) through association with a specific customer profile.

Focus Primary: Structured enterprise data

Primary: Enterprise data

Primary: Customer service

Primary: Media buying

Primary: Digital marketing

Secondary: Operational Analytics and Reports

Secondary: Customer domain data

Secondary: Sales

Secondary: Digital marketing

Secondary: Direct marketing

Typical Implementation Timeline

1-3 years 12-24 months 3-9 months 3-9 months 3-9 months

360° Customer View

Can be a challenge to manage the volume of data at the speed required to utilize a single customer profile

Can provide a single point of reference for customer data, but is not marketing-specific

Unable to identify customers it is not familiar with; cannot create a unique customer ID

Designed to target anonymous customers and does not provide a single view of the customer

Can identify customers using data from various sources to create a single view of the customer


Completing the customer data puzzleFor marketers, the key benefit of a CDP is that it provides a

complete, unified, marketing-oriented view of the customer

that enables them to make very precise decisions on how

to engage. Another benefit of the CDP is that Marketing

can own and control the system and data, rather than

having to constantly work with IT or third-party vendors.

That being said, the CDP is not the be-all and end-

all solution for customer data. Today, all of the

systems discussed here continue to have value—

as well as certain limitations—for marketing.

As such, they are all

essential pieces of the

larger marketing

ecosystem puzzle.

• CDP: Unifies all marketing and advertising technologies;

enables a customer data hub that connects all systems

and democratizes the data across the CX ecosystem.

• DMP: Targets audiences through lookalike

modeling, retargeting, and personalization by

segmenting of anonymous individuals.

• CRM: Manages the sales and service interactions

of known customers and prospects.

• MDM: Creates a common enterprise-wide definition for a

customer for multiple functions within an organization.

• EDW: Stores and archives vast amounts of historical

data about customers but rarely in real-time.

When used in concert, these advances in digital technology

are enabling marketers to achieve a single 360-degree view

of the customer, and to deploy in real time a more effective

end-to-end marketing process and customer experience.


Getting the most value from customer dataOn the surface, customer data systems for marketing can seem to be a confusing jumble of acronyms that appear to do similar things. However,

at their core, these systems are fundamentally different—each playing an essential role in the marketing ecosystem. Armed with the right

combination of tools, marketing organizations now have the power to create deeper one-on-one connections with customers to deliver a

superior, end-to-end brand experience across all channels.

Deloitte’s approach :

Leveraging various customer and audience data solutions in an overall ecosystem

Deloitte empowers clients to take consumer data next level, using

it to infuse better decision-making that ultimately enables positive,

memorable customer experiences. By integrating anonymous audience

data with known customer data from a variety of systems and

engagement channels using a cloud-based approach, clients can gain

increased transparency and real-time insights into who each consumer

is, what his/her interests and needs are, and what types of customer

experiences resonate most at an individual level. By working in tight

conjunction with software alliances across Marketing, CRM, eCommerce,

and social media, Deloitte brings its strengths in CX strategy, system

integration, machine learning-driven analytics, cloud-based solutions,

and sector-specific knowledge to help clients operate and win on

Customer Experience in an era where the customer is clearly in charge.

Effectively engaging with customers is not just about marketing; it is about the entire human experience.


Interested in learning more about Deloitte’s proposition on customer data solutions?Please contact one of the following team members:

Authors:

Stella Lee, Greta O’Brien, Gabrielle Hanlon, Jay Hover, David Chan, Trinadha Kandi

This publication contains general information only, and none of the member firms of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, its member firms, or their related entities (collective, the “Deloitte Network”) is, by means of this publication, rendering professional advice or services. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified professional adviser. No entity in the Deloitte Network shall be responsible for any loss whatsoever sustained by any person who relies on this publication.

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte USA LLP, Deloitte LLP and their respective subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

Copyright ©2019 Deloitte Development LLC. All rights reserved. Member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited

John Healy Managing Director

Deloitte Consulting LLP

[email protected]

David Chan Senior Manager


[email protected]

Trinadha Kandi Senior Manager


[email protected]

february 2019 the abcs of customer data in marketing · 360-degree view of the customer that...

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