Personalization Consulting and Strategy Services

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 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.

Our 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 PersoStack, a proprietary throughput-engineering platform that can host and power any analytical application. In mere days, we can integrate our modular architecture into our clients’ existing stack and marketing technology (martech) ecosystems. This, in turn, allows them to 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 Personalization Capabilities

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:

BCG GAMMA. An analytics powerhouse with a business backbone, BCG GAMMA unleashes the power of data to spark new growth—and new possibilities. Its global team of world-class data scientists comprises experts in AI, machine learning, and personalization engines, and in using 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.
Personalization Maturity Assessment. One of the first actions our personalization consultants take is to measure a company’s existing capabilities. BCG’s personalization maturity assessment provides fast and comprehensive insight on where things stand—and where to focus to operationalize personalization at scale, and create value, quickly.
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 Digital Ventures. While our personalization consulting is technology agnostic, we can leverage BCG Digital Ventures capabilities, including a real-time, cloud-based personalization platform that applies machine learning to create, deliver, and manage segment-of-one offers.

Meet Our Personalization Consulting Team

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.

Meet the rest of our marketing and sales team

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.

Becoming the World’s Most Personalized Brand

DigitalBCG used predictive analytics and machine learning to create a real-time personalization experience for Starbucks. We implemented one-to-one personalization offers and recommendations for customers, which led to a 150% increase in user interaction.

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.