It is no secret that Direct Marketing has gotten more complicated.
Printed communications have given way to digital communications, and digital communications are splintering into a million social digital conversations, and … well, I’m not sure what is next but I’m sure it will make what we’re working with now look easy.
We work furiously to adapt our messages based on the channel, select the channel based on customer responses, and evaluate to gain a better understanding of the consumer based on their behavior.
Wineries of all sizes struggle with connecting the dots on this data story. This is primarily so hard because the customer behavior data is still being captured and managed in databases that are difficult to integrate, but, this is changing.
More and more wineries are finding ways to break down their data silos and realize the significant ROI potential of optimized customer engagement. And, as I work on case studies and listen to speakers at our local conferences, what I see is that smaller wineries are leading the way as they leverage their ability to be more agile and make quicker decisions than their larger counterparts.
For our local large beverage conglomerates, data silos are the result of customer data that is independently captured and managed by different departments within the organization. For example, a wine brand with years of history is likely to have a list of distribution sales data. And, then ten years ago they introduced an e-commerce site, leading to an email DTC marketing database and Wine Club. More recently, the same wine brand may have a hospitality site that started a Facebook page and began collecting visitor information for tasting room promotion.
Each of these marketing channels—retail, DTC, social, and mobile/site—have independent points of data capture. More than likely they are also managed independently, by either different managers, or entirely different departments. If the company places high expectations on each of these departments to meet individual P&L goals and allocations, there is little incentive for these managers to share customer information and inventory.
Furthermore, many departments outsource the management and storage of their customer data of IT. And, IT supports everyone, not just marketing. It is difficult in these circumstances for marketing to acquire the data, let alone integrate it, in a timely responsive fashion. All of these factors contribute to valuable data, in effect, being held hostage.
According to the PACE Benchmark Study conducted by 89 Degrees, nearly half of the surveyed companies are successfully adapting marketing messages to a channel, yet, 30% report the customer response data in these channels is siloed. Smaller companies (less than $1 billion in revenue) are doing a better job of overcoming silos and optimizing channel and customer engagement. Why?
To compete with smaller wineries in this new age of data coordination, larger companies will need to embrace technology and tools that increase their data access and lets them connect disparate digital data to create a universal customer ID that acts as a link between key customer touchpoints.
It’s going to require some different thinking at these wineries, but it will be more than worth it to escape from data silos and recognize their customers better than ever before.
Predicting the future of the wine business (steveheimoff.com)
Simple Segmentation – How To Increase Sales and Retention(wineglassmarketing.com)
“Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto” (wineglassmarketing.com)
OUR BLOG IS FULL OF DTC TIPS AND YOU'LL WANT TO READ IT!
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