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Customer Data Platforms: Foundation for the Future of Customer Experience

David Wallace — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective analyzes the primary role of customer data platforms (CDPs) in delivering better customer-centered outcomes. The analysis is based on IDC's Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey and other IDC research. Technology buyers can use this research to benchmark their CDP adoption and learn about new developments in the market. Technology vendors can use this research to advise their customers on the value of accelerating implementation of CDP technology to obtain significant business outcomes faster.

"CDP adoption has continued to increase in the past few years as global enterprise brands and other firms have found that unified customer profiles and other CDP technologies can deliver significant business outcomes and most importantly raise the bar on customer experience," said David Wallace, research director, Customer Data and Analytics at IDC. "In challenging economic times, brands must stay even closer to their customers' needs to preserve relationships and continue to grow revenue by delivering empathic experiences that create trust and loyalty. CDPs are the foundation on which to build a common set of customer orchestration operating services that cut across all customer-facing teams enabling them to work from a unified and constantly updated data repository."

Worldwide Video Platforms Software Market Shares, 2021: 1H22 Update

Marci Maddox — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study contains vendor shares for the video platforms software market for 2019–2021. It includes commentary on market growth and emerging trends, and it provides actionable advice for technology suppliers.

"The video platforms software market grew steadily at 22.0% in 2021," said Marci Maddox, research vice president for Persuasive Content and Digital Experience Strategies at IDC. "The need to publish video for both external and internal use cases continues to drive growth in this market."

IDC's Worldwide Marketing Taxonomy, 2023

Laurie Buczek, Fred Isbell — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study is a reference guide for budget management and cost control. It can serve as the foundation for marketing and finance executives to better demonstrate fiscal management capabilities to C-level executives and to improve decision-making processes based on standardized resource allocations.

"Using IDC's marketing taxonomy, coupled with benchmarking against IDC's industry-leading Technology Marketing Benchmarks database, will enable executives to invest in the right priorities to support marketing's important role of establishing the brand awareness and purpose, generating demand, and finding opportunities for business growth," says Laurie Buczek, research vice president of IDC's CMO Advisory practice. "Executives should use this taxonomy guide as a tool to optimize return on their activities and expenses across the marketing functions."

"The IDC Marketing Taxonomy is the foundation for the IDC Tech Marketing Benchmark program, which provides answers to critical management questions spanning marketing spending, staffing, and investment in programs," says Fred Isbell, research manager of IDC's CMO Advisory practice. "It provides valuable up-to-date information on key performance indicators (KPIs), comparisons against other organizations and sectors, and supports planning, ongoing peer evaluation, and measurements to improve planning and optimize marketing campaigns and programs."

Retail Forecasting — The Value of the Crystal Ball

Ananda Chakravarty — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective puts the essential function of demand forecasting on display because it is the foundation for the basic role of retail merchandising. The value of demand forecasting has been growing dramatically across the past few years in retail. Forecasts and predicting the future now drive retail planning across finances, supply chain, inventory management, procurement, pricing, and more. But what is it really worth to the retail merchant, and more importantly, what has been changing that will be making forecasts a crucial part of retailing in the future?

"Demand forecasting in retail, once thought to be a mature space, is now undergoing dramatic change. More importantly, predicting the future has become more critical, more accurate, and more of an essential differentiator for the modern retailer," says Ananda Chakravarty, VP of research, Merchandising and Marketing Analytics, IDC Retail Insights.

Industry Personas Handbook: Worldwide Life Sciences, 2022/2023

Nino Giguashvili, Silvia Piai — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation examines IDC's Worldwide Life Sciences Personas Handbook, designed to provide technology vendors a better understanding of their buyer personas. It aims to answer the following questions:

Who are the key personas I need to address with my:

Offering (products and services)
Marketing messages
Sales campaign
Sales activity

What are their strategic priorities and their day-to-day activities?

What are their major pains and challenges?

What are their KPIs?

This IDC Presentation focuses on the C-suite level and provides an overview of key executives in life sciences organizations. The strategic priorities, pain points, and KPIs described for each persona are intended to support the early stages of the sales funnel, such as in the stages of awareness creation, interest, and consideration. It will not focus on how to approach procurement departments once decisions for purchase have been made.

"Identifying the right target personas and understanding their role-specific priorities, pain points, and KPIs in the face of the increasingly complex life sciences stakeholder ecosystem is essential for tech vendors to design and execute effective sales and marketing strategies and maximize the value of interactions with key decision makers and influencers," said Nino Giguashvili, research manager, IDC Health Insights.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Point-of-Sale Software for Large Apparel and Softlines Retail 2023 Vendor Assessment

Margot Juros — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC MarketScape assesses the capabilities and strategies of enterprise POS software solution providers that have a significant presence in the large apparel/softlines retail segment. A key component of the evaluation is how IT buyers perceive the benefits of the POS software in meeting the quickly evolving needs of apparel retail as well as the providers' strategy and commitment to innovation to enable retailers' ongoing omni-channel success.

"The rapidly changing macroeconomic conditions as well as new shopper expectations for frictionless, engaging experiences means that POS providers must address not only the omni-channel needs of today but have a strong strategy for powering the omni-channel needs of tomorrow with the rapid innovation," says Margot Juros, research manager, Worldwide Retail Technology Strategies at IDC. "Successful players need to enable seamless omni-channel shopping with features, such as mobile POS, self-service/kiosks, and mixed carts, that allow consumers to shop anywhere and any way they want."

Customer Data Influences on Content Marketing and the Customer Experience

Marci Maddox — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Perspective explores the challenges and opportunities in collecting, using, and sharing customer data within the context of a content marketing strategy. Customer data platforms offer a central location to house and manage all data types that go into the unified customer profile. It allows marketing teams to align personalized content with the customer journey and have a direct impact on improving the customer experience.

"Direct consumer data sharing with the business is about providing a secure experience with a brand they trust and establishing a value exchange for the privilege of using their digital identity to create a positive experience," states Marci Maddox, research vice president of Persuasive Content and Digital Experience Strategies at IDC. "Managing first-party data effectively in a scalable way requires the right tools, like a CDP, and a content marketing strategy that becomes more than just managing the customer relationship — it becomes a way of managing the customer data relationship at scale."

Marketing's Playbook for Scale During Disruptive Times

Laurie Buczek — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

These event proceedings were presented at the IDC Directions conferences in Boston and Santa Clara in March 2023.

Enterprises face another year of uncertain business conditions while transforming into a digital business. Marketing's most critical role is to drive business growth. What are the investments and strategy to fuel marketing's ability to scale? What is the most effective playbook to engage today's tech buyer? How does marketing fulfill the digital customer experience leadership role? Join Laurie Buczek, IDC's vice president of the CMO Advisory Practice to gain insights and actionable advice for marketing excellence in 2023.

Matching Customer Data and Engagement — How Retailers Are Building Connected Experiences

Ananda Chakravarty — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

These event proceedings were presented at the IDC Directions conferences in Boston and Santa Clara in March 2023.

This session describes how retailers are extending the value of CDP's drive loyalty, ROI, and LTV. The holistic vision for customer 360 is to tie customer touch points together through a central directory and corpus of information, so that customer care, marketing, operations, and ultimately the customer find more value in shared experiences. Attendees will hear about:

A retailer's journey from customer data manager to customer experience connector
How retailers can improve outcomes by integrating customer data more holistically
A vision for automated and prescient customer experiences

Coke's Generative AI Deal with Bain: Dawn of a New Era in Digital Marketing

Gerry Murray, Sudhir Rajagopal — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note provides insights and recommendations related to the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL·E for marketing. The scale, scope, and intimacy (intrusion) capabilities of digital marketing have increased by orders of magnitude over the past decade, and despite the ongoing rumors of cookie deprecations, they are about to do so again with the advent of generative AI (G-AI). The partnership announcement between Bain & Company and The Coca-Cola Company is presented as a lighthouse project that other brands can ill afford to watch and wait for.