A french perspective on contextual marketing

Beyond personalisationA French perspective on contextual marketing French marketers see the value of marketing in context and are trying to fi nd the right balance between promises to t

Beyond personalisation

A French perspective on contextual marketing

French marketers see the value of marketing in context

and are trying to fi nd the right balance between

promises to the customer, data privacy, and the marketing

goals of the brand

As the world of digital marketing evolves and brands are able to collect more types of data about their

audiences, marketers are moving past segmentation and personalisation to using the contextual

data of customers and prospects to craft messaging By analysing information such as a consumer’s

purchase intent, current location or online activity, marketers have the chance to target their

messages more precisely and to make better use of their marketing budgets

To market in context, much information is needed A survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit

reveals that French marketers claim they are already able to identify much information about their

customers—including when they intend to buy, customer satisfaction levels, product improvement

ideas and social media interactions

Based on this existing information about their customer relationship, French marketers believe

customers are generally happy with how the brand interacts with them (37%), although about one in

four indicate that customers would also prefer more relevant interactions (26%) But when it comes

to prospects, marketers believe they want more interactions and want them to be more relevant (23%

each) and that they are happy with the level of interaction or would like fewer interactions (both 20%)

The complexity of using contextual information

Half of French marketers currently collect information on their customer’s location and use this for

marketing purposes, and two-fi fths collect these data but don’t yet use them for marketing Other

kinds of data, such as current online behaviour, how a consumer is currently feeling or what someone is

Sponsored by:

About the survey

This article draws on a survey of 165 chief marketing offi cers conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit in the summer

of 2015 In addition to 35 marketing executives from France, the survey includes respondents from Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and three Nordics (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) One-half of respondents represent organisations in the retail

currently planning to do, are not yet collected by French brands, although marketers expect they would find them useful

Orange, a French multinational telecommunications corporation, is just beginning to use contextual marketing in earnest, and they have had small successes For example, they have been able to pay attention to social networks to learn about their consumers

“When we launched new offers for 4G last year, we looked at Twitter and analysed the way our customers talked about it,” says Laurent Geffroy, digital performance director at Orange “We realised the way we were trying to sell it was not necessarily the way our customers understood it The words were too technical They didn’t really understand data or roaming; they used other words So we rewrote our ads using the words they used.”

French banks, too, are increasingly aware of the possibilities of contextual marketing, but for them customer privacy and the regulatory environment are of particular relevance

“As the French retail banking sector is facing a customer behaviour transformation, with a bold expectation of personalisation and a growing space for digital channels, French banks are engaged in developing contextual marketing approaches If this sector can benefit from a very rich information

on their website/apps and financial and consumption behaviours, privacy and regulatory aspects constitute key issues to this kind of project,” explains Joseph Trojman, head of research and data valorisation at Société Générale, a multinational bank headquartered in Paris

The brand website is the most popular channel for collecting contextual information about customers; almost seven in ten marketers chose this answer Next in importance in France are email (60%) and channel partners (51%)

France Europe (% respondents)

Which of the following channels do you routinely use to collect contextual information about customers?

Website

Email

Channel partners

Third party sources – e.g media partners, data aggregators

In store personnel

Mobile applications

Social media

69

78 60

61 51

52 46 41 43

53 37

51 34

57

As a telecoms company, Orange has a unique advantage over many other brands—the main channel

they use to collect data is their own network “We know what our customers are doing in terms of using

apps, streaming data or using VoIP,” says Mr Geffroy “We don’t look at it on an individual level, we look

at it globally to understand marketing usage patterns For example, we know that WhatsApp is big in

the Spanish market, but not in France.”

In the banking sector, on the other hand, there is deep and almost exclusive knowledge of customer

behaviour A bank is able to know how much money its customers spend, and where, and can guess

their areas of interest, for example by using data from credit-card usage As long as the data are

anonymised or aggregated, there are no privacy issues But when it comes to using them for targeting

purposes, there are two major challenges—acceptance from the client that their data can be used and

the regulatory environment in Europe

When thinking about the types of information customers are willing to share with their organisation,

French marketers are confident that location data are useful and that customers are willing to

share—37% say customers are willing to share in return for more relevant messaging, and 34% believe

customers are happy to share without the promise of anything in return

“Location is most important to us,” says Mr Geffroy “That is where we can really serve our customers

and provide them with a benefit We are working internally on proof of concept for an opt-in app If

customers allow us to do so, we can collect their location information and use that to communicate

with them For example, if they are travelling abroad we can offer them special services, such as

automatically updating their Facebook status.”

France Europe (% respondents)

Which of the following, if any, do you consider to be the greatest challenges to using contextual information?

Select up to three

Encouraging customers and prospects to share contextual information

Producing messages that are effective in particular contexts

Hiring the technical skills required by contextual marketing

Identifying relevant contexts in which to target customers

Hiring the creative skills required by contextual marketing

Respecting customer privacy

Adapting our marketing/campaign processes to incorporate contextual marketing

Measuring the success of contextual marketing campaigns

57 50

54 50 54 47

49 45 40

45 31

34 9

8

6

15

French marketers believe that customers are willing to share other, more personal information as long

as they get something in return For instance, they are confident that consumers are willing to share data such as online behaviour or who their friends are in return for discounts and special offers As far as data such as offline behaviour, personal interests or what they are currently planning to do are concerned, marketers believe that consumers would be likely to share these in return for the promise of more relevant marketing messages

“We are convinced that without the ability to give a personalised approach to our offer, we could miss the expectation of a growing part of French customers,” says Mr Trojman at Société Générale “It’s a real competitive advantage But there is a paradox Customers can be reluctant to let companies use data, but at the same time they expect a lot of personalisation.”

Indeed, the biggest challenge for French marketers in implementing contextual marketing is encouraging customers and prospects to share their information—almost six out of ten marketers (57%) say this The next-biggest challenges are producing messages that are effective in particular contexts and hiring the technical skills required by contextual marketing (both 54%)

Yet some French marketers remain vigilant to ensure they do not breach the trust of their consumers Respecting customer privacy is identified as a challenge by 31% of marketers “We are very cautious with contextual marketing because of legal constraints,” says Mr Geffroy “We had an internal debate about the difference between personalisation and contextual marketing, taking into account customer location, what they are doing online, and if they are expressing anything dealing with buying intentions.”

“One challenge we have is finding the balance between customer promises and data privacy,” says

Mr Geffroy “We have to make sure to protect data—we have a clear mandate from our CEO to protect the personal data of our customers So when we look at launching new offers, we look carefully to make sure we respect privacy.” Mr Trojman echoes this sentiment “Use of personal data is strictly regulated,” he says “And French people have a high sensitivity to privacy A bank has to be a company that you feel confident with Because of this, we cannot use all we know without sharing rules with our customers about how we use the data.”

Indeed, the primary risks French marketers see with contextual marketing have to do with the use of contextual data Their greatest concerns are damaging the brand by making customers feel uncomfortable (37%) and collecting incorrect or misleading information about customers or prospects (23%)

As digital marketing transforms the way they do business, marketers in France are working to find the right balance between promises to the customer, data privacy, and the marketing goals of the brand They can see the value of contextual marketing for themselves and for their customers And despite

a myriad of perceived challenges and risks, they are starting to incorporate these practices to tailor messaging, build brand awareness, increase engagement, and ideally bring real benefits to consumers