Mark Abraham
Managing Director & Senior Partner
Seattle
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.
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 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 on Marketing, Sales, and Pricing
Customer expectations are rising—are you ready to meet them? Explore our latest insights and thought leadership.
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.
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.
Companies looking to make a step change in customer and consumer engagement should investigate this powerful new technology now.
There’s gold at the end of the personalization rainbow. To get it, retailers need to focus on the customer experience, technology, and operating models.
Customers’ needs and preferences are changing at lightning speed. Simply tracking sales trends is no longer sufficient to serve customers and stay competitive. Businesses need real-time insights into the nuances of customer behavior.
The ability to deliver individually relevant content at scale is the next frontier of marketing.
Companies need to know what works for each individual customer.
