Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Analytics
The 20 attributes that
lead to business success.
Contents
1. Executive Summary 4
2. Methodology 6
11. Sources 37
The Customer Analytics report, published by Adobe The research finds that progression along the
in partnership with London Research, explores the analytics maturity scale requires executive
capabilities required for success in a world where sponsorship and focused investment to enable a
customer centricity is increasingly paramount. This more strategic and integrated approach. Customer
report aims to help enterprise companies evaluate analytics leaders are almost two-and-a-half times
their customer analytics maturity so that they can more likely than their peers to have a complete view
strive for a more advanced approach or improve their of all customer interactions with their brands (71
capabilities even further. percent vs. 29 percent). The other attributes most
closely associated with customer analytics leadership
Based on a global survey of more than 1,800 business are the following:
professionals, of whom more than 1,000 are based
in Europe, the report focuses on 20 attributes that • Utilisation of analytics technology to its full
are important for customer analytics maturity, with potential
statistical analysis to determine which are most
closely correlated with success. • Ability to carry out predictive and prescriptive
analytics
The report identifies a group of customer intelligence
‘leaders’, including 15 percent of responding • Having analysts and data scientists to make the
companies whose capabilities are ‘established’ and most out of data
7 percent who are ‘advanced’. The remaining 78
• Investment in skills to get the most from digital
percent of companies—classified as ‘laggards’—are
technology investment
either at the ‘basic’ or ‘developing’ stage of their
customer analytics evolution, with significant room
• Ability to get actionable insights from analytics
for improvement.
• Technology that enables effective multichannel
attribution
40%
60%
Client-side (working in-house for a company) Supply-side (agency, consultancy, or technology company)
COMPANY RESPONDENTS
Figure 2: In the context of customer intelligence, how would you describe the maturity of your
organisation’s digital analytics capabilities?
Laggards
45%
33%
Leaders
15%
7%
Advanced – digital analytics Established – digital analytics Developing – digital analytics Basic – sometimes use
Advanced - digital analytics Established - digital analytics Developing - digital Basic - sometimes use
produce customer insights that are an integral part of feed into customer intelligence analytics for rear-view-mirror
produce customer insights are an integral part of analytics feed into customer analytics for rear-view-
systematically lead to delivering personalised activities, but this happens reporting based on aggregated
that systematically lead to delivering personalised intelligence activities, but this mirror reporting based on
automated marketing actions
automated marketing actions
customer experiences
customer experiences
only in silos and is ad hoc
happens only in silos and is data, but notdata,
aggregated for customer
but not for
ad hoc intelligence
customer intelligence
Methodology note: Comparisons between ‘leaders’ and ‘laggards’ are based on client-side data only, i.e. ‘company respondents’.
The ‘leaders’ represent 22 percent of the total client- The maturity model overleaf summarises different
side sample, while the remaining 78 percent classify stages of customer analytics maturity, covering the
themselves as either ‘basic’ or ‘developing’ in their overall ‘analytics approach’, ‘people and culture’, ‘data
approach (i.e. the laggards). ‘Basic’ describes those and insights’, and ‘technology’. The model is largely
that ‘sometimes use analytics for rear-view-mirror based on a qualitative assessment of what is required
reporting based on aggregated data but not for at different stages of maturity, but also informed by
customer intelligence’ (33 percent of the client-side our statistical analysis of the relative importance of
sample), while those in the developing phase—the different types of analytics-related organisational
largest group—have digital analytics feeding into attributes, covered in the next section.
customer intelligence but ‘only in silos’ and on an ‘ad
hoc’ basis (45 percent).
People and culture No dedicated Some dedicated Dedicated analytics Team of data scientists
resources resources team / Data scientists (actually doing data
science)
Decisions driven Learning to translate Data-driven culture
unscientifically by gut data and insights into and decision-making Organisational
feel and highest paid actions (analytics as the commitment to CX
person’s opinion ‘insights engine room’
Some ‘democratisation’ for better CX)
of analytics within
workplace
Data and insights Data in silos and not Some sources of data Ability to ‘action’ data AI-driven machine
joined-up at all stitched together (e.g. actions based on learning to enhance
insights) analytics capabilities
No single view of Working towards
customer single customer view Data from different Integration of data
sources successfully between digital
stitched together analytics and other
martech and business
Close to single tech platforms
customer view
Ability to deal with
Strong attribution unstructured data
capabilities (though
not yet fully multi-
touch, including both
online and offline data
sources)
Level of investment
In Figure 4, the vast majority (84 percent) of While marketers and analysts have welcomed the
companies classified as leaders agree that ‘digital increase in the information available from their
analytics provide a strong foundation for customer analytics tool, many have felt disempowered by a
experience initiatives’, compared to just over half (54 lack of commercially useful information. Data has
percent) of laggards. An important building block accumulated in unread reports, and analytics tools are
for effective customer intelligence activities is the not being utilised.
centralisation of customer data within the business,
with more than two-thirds (69 percent) of leaders
saying they have achieved this, compared to 40
percent of laggards.
83%
We get actionable insights from our digital analytics solution
50%
69%
We have centralised all our customer data
40%
Leaders Laggards
We are able to enrich our customer data using second- and 61%
third-party data 35%
Leaders Laggards
Leaders are twice as likely as their peers to agree that Other capabilities that are much more prevalent
their ‘technology platform enables the automation among leaders than laggards are the ability to ‘enrich
of actions from insights (e.g. identifying anomalies customer data using second- and third-party data’ (61
and initiating personalised experiences from those)’ percent vs. 35 percent), and the ability to ‘leverage
(59 percent vs. 30 percent, Figure 5). This evolution of customer intelligence to get maximum value from
analytics is also evident in the proportion of leaders their paid media investment’ (56 percent vs. 25
now able ‘to carry out predictive and prescriptive percent). In both cases, integrations are required to
analytics, i.e. with actions and execution’ (65 percent make this happen, whether with a data management
vs. 29 percent). Driving real-time decisioning and platform, in the case of data enrichment, or with ad
triggering communication events to drive personal management platforms in the case of paid media.
interaction with customers is not only possible but
increasingly expected as a foundational component The companies leading the way in terms of
of a great customer experience. automation and integration are starting to get full
value from digital analytics technology, though they
are very much in the minority. It can also be seen
in Figure 4 that leaders are three times more likely
than laggards to agree they are ‘utilising their digital
analytics technology to its full potential’ (58 percent
vs. 19 percent).
We invest in the skills we need to get the most from our 78%
digital technology investment 42%
We have buy-in from the top of the organisation for digitally- 65%
driven customer intelligence 41%
59%
Analytics have been ‘democratised’ within our organisation
29%
Leaders Laggards
Methodology note: Derived from Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, where 1 means a perfect correlation.
35%
33%
32%
30%
28%
24%
9% 9%
We / they sometimes use We /they use analytics across Our / their digital analytics We / they have an integrated
analytics to report on the organisation, but do not solution is an integral part of digital analytics solution that
aggregated data co-ordinate activities our / their marketing activities we / they use to deliver
personalised and timely
experiences
Company respondents Agency respondents
58%
40%
34%
28%
22%
7% 7%
4%
We sometimes use analytics We use analytics across the Our digital analytics solution We have an integrated digital
to report on aggregated data organisation, but do not co- is an integral part of our analytics solution that we use
ordinate activities marketing activities to deliver personalised and
timely experiences
Leaders Laggards
60%
53%
21% 22%
14%
11%
7% 6% 2%
4%
A mixture of paid and A paid solution A home-grown solution Only free software None of these
free software (e.g.
Google Analytics)
Leaders Laggards
17%
Established – digital analytics are an integral part of
delivering personalised customer experiences
5%
8%
Advanced – digital analytics produce customer insights that
systematically lead to automated marketing actions
3%
Paid solution / mixture of paid and free software Only free software
66%
Improved marketing ROI
75%
62%
Customer retention
67%
62%
Customer acquisition
65%
59%
Increased customer lifetime value
61%
46%
Increased traffic
45%
34%
Reduced cost to serve customers
42%
28%
Improved average order value
33%
3%
None of the above
1%
28%
34% 35% 34%
46%
42%
45% 47%
26% 24%
20% 19%
Targeting the right content Generation of insights Identification and dynamic Creating and adapting
and messaging at the right creation of segments content for personalisation at
moment scale
We are doing this We are planning to do this No plans to do so
The last few years have seen rapidly growing interest Artificial intelligence and machine learning will
in the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) and become increasingly prevalent in the context
machine learning to break through barriers around of customer analytics because this technology
analytics, and to derive deeper insight from data. can essentially act like a virtual analyst within an
This could include better optimisation of the timing, organisation, systematically crawling through vast
method of delivery, and make-up of customer amounts of data, and allowing real analysts and data
messaging, based on how likely the data suggests an scientists to focus on the insights being surfaced by
individual is to engage. the machine.
Social 56%
64%
Behavioural 55%
58%
50%
Transactional
53%
Socio-demographic 48%
55%
Identity-related 33%
34%
Third-party 29%
41%
Descriptive 27%
29%
Second-party 17%
24%
Attitudinal 16%
20%
Firmagraphic 8%
8%
59%
Behavioural
49%
Social 57%
55%
Transactional 54%
36%
Socio-demographic 50%
43%
Identity-related 34%
32%
Third-party 33%
17%
Descriptive 29%
22%
18%
Second-party
10%
Attitudinal 18%
8%
Firmagraphic 8%
9%
Paid solution / mixture of paid and free software Only free software
68%
Email / marketing automation
51%
61%
Social
37%
57%
CRM
39%
56%
Paid search
31%
55%
Business intelligence solutions
22%
46%
Customer data platforms (CDPs)
18%
46%
Tag management
24%
45%
Data management platforms (DMPs)
19%
43%
Personalisation / recommendation technology
16%
Leaders Laggards
37%
Culture of organisation
41%
36%
Lack of skills
47%
35%
Lack of investment in data capabilities
37%
34%
Organisational structure (‘silos’)
38%
33%
Lack of unified technology
31%
19%
Too much data – we / they don’t know where to start
33%
19%
Data regulation / compliance
17%
11%
No boardroom buy-in
13%
8%
None of the above
2%
3% 6%
11%
40%
51%
61%
57%
43%
28%
Many businesses are therefore hiring in a bid to beef Despite the advantages conferred by greater levels of
up their customer intelligence capability. Among automation, however, it remains clear that customer
respondents, 43 percent are increasing outlay on intelligence very much remains a people-centred area
internal staff, and 28 percent say they are investing of business. Although technology has a vital part to
more in external staff or consultancy (Figure 20). play in the implementation of a data-led customer
Despite their more advanced level, it is noteworthy experience strategy, it doesn’t matter how good the
that leaders have a higher tendency than their peers technology is if businesses do not have the skills
to be investing in staff—particularly for roles within required to exploit it or cannot agree on common
their organisation (Figure 21). KPIs to measure the end-to-end customer experience.
However, businesses are more likely to be increasing Reinforcing the premium placed on skills and
their investment in technology than people. More experience in the customer intelligence realm,
than half (57 percent) of respondents say that they are executives are most likely to rate the level of
increasing their investment in this area, and this figure knowledge and skills within their organisation or their
increases to 69 percent for leaders. Just 3 percent clients’ organisations as merely ‘okay’ (38 percent of
of all companies surveyed say they are decreasing companies and 41 percent of agency respondents,
investment in technology. Figure 22). This implies that there is still a long way
to go when it comes to achieving satisfaction with
customer-related data and analytics.
69%
54% 54%
40%
31%
28%
41%
38%
32%
28%
22%
21%
8%
7%
2%
1%
57%
19%
12%
8%
2% 2%
39%
27%
9% 9%
7%
6%
3%
Less than $5 $5 million - $49 $50 million - $99 $100 million - $250 million - $500 million - $1 billion+
million million million $249 million $499 million $999 million
COMPANY RESPONDENTS
Figure 25: In which business sector does your company primarily operate?
Retail 10%
Manufacturing 9%
Financial services and insurance 8%
Education 8%
Media and entertainment 7%
IT consultancy 6%
Professional services 6%
Consumer goods 5%
Travel, leisure and hospitality 5%
Healthcare / Medical / Pharmaceutical 5%
Charity / Non-profit 5%
Telecommunications 3%
Accountancy / Business services / Law 3%
Government and local authority 3%
Property 2%
Food and beverage 2%
Utilities 1%
Environmental 1%
Other 11%