How can brands avoid being perceived as creepy? Customers see value as what they get from a message relative to how much it costs—meaning how much personal information they have to share to get it. To understand how to deliver value while retaining trust, the following questions are helpful: — Are you infusing empathy into your customer analytics and communications? Create segmen ta tion based on customer attitudes and prioritize customer satisfaction based on the overall journey rather than individual touchpoints. — Are you listening carefully for feedback on customer acceptance? Test and learn constantly to improve engagement. Do this by digging into upstream (likes, clicks, opens) and downstream (conversions, unsubscribes, ROI) engagement metrics. Engage with qualitative listening tools, like an ongoing shopper panel and ethnographic research and observation. How might brands use personalization to achieve their goals? Most marketers know that personalization is important. But we anticipate that, in coming years, personalization will transform the way companies approach marketing. Here’s what brands should focus on to prepare for the future: — Invest in customer data and analytics foundations. These include systems to pool and analyze data, algorithms to identify behavior patterns and customer propensity, and analytical capabilities to feed that information into simple dashboards. This foundation will allow marketers to understand what high value customers are looking for on an ongoing basis. A recent survey indicates that nearly one in five organizations are already investing in customer service analytics and customer segmentation AI use cases. — Find and train translators and advanced tech talent. This technological leap requires a close partnership between marketing and IT. In addition to data scientists and engineers, product management teams will need analytics translators who can communicate business goals to tech stakeholders and data driven outcomes to the business. The ability to recruit and develop this type of translator will provide a significant competitive advantage for organizations. — Build agile capabilities. A successful personali zation program requires cross disciplinary project teams—and hence, a commitment to agile management. Teams should be organized around specific customer segments or journeys and should excel in creative, collaborative problem solving. Customers see value as what they get from a message relative to how much it costs—meaning how much personal information they have to share to get it. 3 What is personalization?