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We’re in a marketing catch-22. Consumers increasingly demand hyper-personalized experiences but are increasingly reluctant to hand over the data needed to make those experiences personalized.

A recent Accenture report found that 44% of U.S. consumers are frustrated when companies fail to delivery relevant, personalized shopping experiences but half (49%) are concerned about personal data privacy. And 43% of U.S. consumers fear intelligent new services will come to know too much about them and their family.



"If marketing kept a diary, this would be it." - Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs Order Now

Accenture calls this a “vicious circle”. They say the “digital trust deficit” cost companies in the US $757 billion last year, as 41% of consumers switched companies due to poor personalization and lack of trust.

Tim Walters, privacy lead at The Content Advisory recently described the “vicious circle” in the context of GDPR:

“Consumers will punish brands that do not provide relevant experiences by abandoning them for other providers. Not because they necessarily know that another provider can provide that experience, but because they hope that they can.

“The fact that they don’t know what’s going on with the data that they surrender means that they are reluctant to provide that personal data, which is precisely necessary to create the kinds of experiences that they demand. That’s the vicious circle.”

It’ will be interesting to see how marketers navigate this “vicious circle” and brands work to earn the trust of customers needed to deliver the experiences they want. Accenture reports that 66% of U.S. consumers want companies to earn their trust by being more open and transparent with how their information is used.

Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:

“GDPR Compliance” October 2017



“Marketing with Personal Data” May 2014



“Sharing Personal Data with Marketers” July 2014

