In thinking about the trajectory of marketing, more often than not, marketing was almost strictly promotion — offers, pricing, products, etc. 

In the modern era, particularly since the 2000s, marketing has transitioned into the development and implementation of customer journeys and a tailored customer experience, explained David Edelman, author of Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI and a fellow at the Harvard Business School.

Edelman shared his extensive marketing background with guided questions from INMA Researcher-in-Residence Greg Piechota during the recent Subscriptions Town Hall. 

Such a change, requires companies and businesses to plan and execute a strategy fitting of their customer base and tied to company goals.

The scope of personalisation

The personalisation is now about every stage of the journey, Edelman said, referencing digital-native brands including Netflix, Spotify, and Uber who use information about their consumers to make a consumer’s experience, “better, faster, [to] discover new things, [to] have more fun.” 

These types of companies are rooted in a digital-first approach for their consumers compared to more traditional multinational companies like the coffeehouse chain Starbucks and the hotel chain Marriott. Even retailers like athleisure brand Lululemon and personal care and beauty brand Sephora are now designing more holistic, personalised shopping experiences for their customers based on the data points they provide-age, interests, location, income/budget, etc. 

Edelman suggests using and sharing information relevant to users. 

In discussing ecosystems, as a matrix or set of complex components, Edelman highlighted Marriott as an example. The upfront, face value of the brand is to book a stay at one of their properties across the world: “Well, Marriott has broader ambitions. They are building an ecosystem to move data around multiple parties so that they can coordinate a whole itinerary.” 

With the help of generative AI, which can create content and code, the Marriott app will book and manage guest itineraries, Edelman said.

“GenAI can normalise data from two different partiesand put it in an integrated way into a single database. It can manage privacy. It can manage eligibility of who can look at data.”

From the perspective of the news business, constant demand already exists and the use of generative AI could help with the creation and implementation of unique experiences. Though a dedicated paywall or an e-mail to a customer by name might feel or be designed to create a personalised engagement, Edelman argued that perspective is not personalisation at all. 

“I call that customisation,” Edelman said.

What personalisation looks like

He elaborated that a personalised experience “adds value to a customer by building a bond because of how I’m using information to deliver value to you.” There is a difference between targeting, customisation, and personalisation. 

The most important element of personalisation is empowerment, according to Edelman's book: “It's enabling people to do things they could not do before because of how you're activating information about them,” he said. 

As an example, Edelman referred to Starbucks founder and then-CEO Howard Schulz’s e-mail proclaiming he wanted his company to be "the most personalised brand in the world." 

The coffeehouse and roastery brand attempted to achieve this goal via their mobile app. Though this goal was met with success, it came with significant challenges, including the burden and demands of stores trying to execute specific, time-intensive customer orders. 

Ultimately, companies, even in the news industry, need to solve the empowerment dilemma Edelman posed through a series of questions, “How do you want to empower customers? What's the new experience? What is the use case that could create value for a customer and for yourself?”

Misconceptions in implementing personalisation

According to Edelman’s consulting experience and research in surveying large companies:

• Companies think data and privacy and compliance areas will limit their opportunities or stop them entirely from developing  personalised experiences for customers. 

• In referring to technical limitations of personalisation, “Most major newspapers probably have tools (Hubspot, Adobe, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, etc.) already that are bringing in AI capabilities that they're just not using, including using GenAI to write code.”

Edelman suggested news companies determine which data they need, what content is needed to create a specific experience, and ultimately what process needs to exist to facilitate certain functions to get the desired result.

“What we have to be careful of in the newspaper business, though, is limiting people to only the things you think they want to see. Because part of the value of a newspaper and the bundle is discovery; discovery of things you may not have realised.”

With technologies like GenAI, the news industry has an opportunity to craft personalised content and dedicated experiences, Edelman said, and consumers will find value and maintain a relationship because of the benefits, including discovery, with a subscription or brand interaction.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .