Personalization Consulting and Strategy Services

Marketing and Sales

Delivering personalized customer experiences is no longer optional. But doing it right requires more than data and algorithms. BCG helps companies develop the strategies and capabilities to create value quickly—and deliver long-term impact.

Companies that master personalization can increase their growth rates by 6% to 10%. And delivering the right experience through the right channel at the right time allows businesses to improve marketing efficiency, boost digital sales, and build stronger relationships with their customers. Yet few companies are tapping the full potential of one-to-one marketing.

We view marketing personalization as a journey: one that ultimately touches upon every way in which a business interacts with its customers. We help companies develop a bold vision for where they want to go. But just as important, we help them take a path that generates value quickly while building the capabilities that let them set their own course ahead.

BCG’s Approach to Personalization

Our approach to personalized marketing is centered on value and enablement. We identify how one-to-one marketing improves experiences in the ways that matter most, and we implement use cases so that companies generate value as they build self-sustaining capabilities for long-term impact.

The idea is to think big, start small, and grow fast—with quick wins to fund the journey. To help companies do this, we bring a full spectrum of expertise in data and personalization strategy and implementation; analytics and technology; and ways of working and change management.

With this approach, we can help our clients develop the four key elements of digital personalization.

Personalization Strategy. We help define a vision for how personalized marketing can create value for customers and companies alike. Our personalization consultants assess pain points—and opportunities—along the customer journey, prioritize the use cases with the greatest potential, and orchestrate marketing personalization across channels for seamless experiences.
Data and Analytics. We help companies accelerate value creation from data—from enhanced access and insight creation to application of advanced predictive algorithms, such as AI-based recommenders and next-best-action solutions that fuel personalized marketing. We get pilots off the ground and steadily build capabilities, in such areas as artificial intelligence and data governance, that enable companies to launch segment-of-one experiences.
Technology and Deployment. The best examples of personalization share a common trait: they run on scalable technology platforms. To this end, we have developed Fabriq by BCG. Fabriq—a state-of-the-art set of tools, modules, and integration capabilities—enables users to integrate our modular architecture into their existing technology stack and implement new personalization initiatives quickly and effectively, without further scaling or refactoring efforts.
Ways of Working. Many companies are surprised to discover the 10/20/70 rule: winning with personalized marketing is 10% about algorithms, 20% about technology, and 70% about business transformation. We work with companies to develop the agile cross-functional teams, test-and-learn culture, metrics, and processes that let them innovate and scale up what works—with speed, precision, and results.

Our Client Work in Personalized Marketing

We’ve worked with leaders in personalization—and empowered others to join their ranks. Some examples of our impact include the following.

Personalized Marketing for the Retail Industry. We helped our client realize an increase in annual revenue of $300 million by implementing one-to-one marketing—experiences based on preferences, usage, location, and context relevant to individual customers.

Cross-Selling for Retail Banking. Through customer-specific offers and recommendations based on life events, we helped our client increase its offer conversion rates by 30%.

Capability Build and Agile Teaming for the Airline Industry. We helped our client realize $50 million to $100 million in incremental revenue through a six-month pilot while scaling up an internal marketing team of 90 to work in agile, cross-functional squads.

Recommendation Engine Build for US Biopharmaceuticals. We built a “next best action” engine driven by machine learning to recommend the right offer in the right channel, leading to a 3% increase in volume and a 10% increase in acceptance.

Our Personalization Tools and Solutions

Our personalization consulting draws upon a unique combination of industry, technology, and functional expertise. We leverage agency-like capabilities, cutting-edge analytics, and an array of proprietary tools. Some of our key personalization resources include:

Data-Driven Marketing Assessment

Developed in partnership with Google, this online survey measures six key dimensions of data-driven marketing and generates a report that benchmarks your organization against others in your industry. Recommendations on the basis of these results can help you step up your game.

BCG X

BCG X, BCG’s tech build and design unit, brings together advanced tech knowledge and ambitious entrepreneurship to help organizations launch their next big bets and enable innovation at scale. Its global team of world-class technologists, scientists, programmers, engineers, and designers includes experts using AI, machine learning, and data to drive business transformation.

BCG Platinion

With experts in martech architecture, design, and implementation, BCG Platinion has helped companies across industries implement end-to-end digital transformation. Our martech experts have deep experience in selecting, integrating, and scaling both leading large platforms and specialized software-as-a-service solutions to help companies realize the full potential of data and personalization.

Unlock Growth and Resilience with BCG’s Personalization Index

Heightened personalization maturity empowers brands to build a competitive moat in their sector, unlock sustained growth, and establish resilience amid market pressures. Our personalization consulting experts have quantified our learnings into the Personalization Index, an assessment of personalization maturity at both the individual company and industry levels.

Contact our team to request the assessment

Explore Our Insights on Personalization

How Will Generative AI Shape the Future of Marketing?

Generative AI is revolutionizing marketing by streamlining creativity and making hyper-personalized content possible at scale. BCG's CMO Jessica Apotheker explains what’s possible, right now, with generative AI–and how to get started.

Article

Smarter Retailer Promotions for a Saturated Market

Overwhelming consumers with elaborate promotions, discounts, coupons, and loyalty rewards can weaken consumer loyalty, tarnish brand reputation, and suppress new revenue opportunities. Instead, retailers should adopt a streamlined, customer-centric approach.

What Will AI Do for Customer Experience?

Article

Our experts have run large-scale personalization programs across industries and geographies, honing one-to-one marketing strategies and building the enablers for sustainable success.