CDP Institute

I wouldn’t usually mention that omnichannel messaging tool Iterable has integrated with direct mail production platform Inkit. But it fits today’s topic and there’s not much else to report. So I just did.

Many marketers have gone beyond acceptance of the European Union’s GDPR privacy rules and convinced themselves that GDPR will ultimately help their business. Cross-device identity company Drawbridge has dumped a bucket of ice water into that warm bath with news that it is shutting down its EU advertising business and closing its London office because of GDPR. Drawbridge will continue its identity data business, although it’s still trying to figure out how to make that GDPR-compliant.

In cheerier news, high-touch retailer Nordstrom has purchased two customer technology companies: mobile clienteling app BevyUp and messaging-based e-commerce system MessageYes. The deal is apparently as about adding expert staff as much as using the specific products.

Nordstrom is beefing up its tech staff, but what if tech were so easy that workers could just build their own systems? Australia-based Kradle just launched a system that lets small and mid-size business workers do exactly that, at least to the extent of creating automated process flows. Companies that tried this in the past have discovered that ease of use isn’t enough: workers need a lot of help figuring out what to do with these superpowers.

We all know there’s a fine line between personalized and creepy, but what if all personalization is creepy?

If consumers think personalized recommendations are creepy, will they be even more upset about Amazon and Google listening to them 24/7? Apparently not: 13% of U.S. households had smart speakers in 2017 and 55% will have them by 2022, according to OC&C Strategy Consultants. One bit of consistency: only 39% trust the personalized product recommendations from their speakers. Much smart advice here on marketing in a voice commerce world.

More bad news: GlobalWebIndex found personalized Web site recommendations ranked a dismal 17th on the list of product discovery sources. Ray of hope: they were ahead of ads in movie theaters. Most cited sources were search engines, TV, and word of mouth.

CDP BlueVenn has added a connector for consumer and business data aggregator FullContact. BlueVenn users will be able to enrich existing customer profiles with FullContact data, including cross-channel identifiers to improve identity matching. FullContact has been expanding enrichment partnerships: its Web site lists an existing connector for the Lytics CDP and a planned connector for Segment.

Mapp Digital, a mash-up created by Marlin Equity from Blue Hornet and parts of the Teradata Marketing Application business, is now calling its technology suite the Mapp Cloud. It’s not clear whether anything is new beyond the label. Then again, functions already span data aggregation, analytics, campaigns, and execution across email, mobile, Web, social, and advertising channels.

Apptentive lets mobile app developers display event-triggered messages and surveys. They’ve just added a semantic engine to classify and analyze text comments on surveys, messages, and reviews. Nice product extension.

Let’s bust some myths today. You know how price is the most important factor in retail purchase decisions? Not so according to ForeSee research: just 6% of shoppers chose their last merchant because of price while 45% said it was driven mostly by retailer preference. They also found about 27% of people who start their purchase on Web and mobile shoppers end up buying in-store. Interesting.

Those crazy Gen Z kids are hopelessly addicted to social media, right? Well, 34% told researchers at Hill Holliday’s ORIGIN that they’ve quit at least one social app entirely and 64% have taken a temporary break. Some 68% say social media has occasionally made them unhappy but 91% use it and 62% say its overall effect is positive.