We’re living in a post-truth world today, and that’s a little alarming. From global government scandals and “deep fakes” to misinformation being shared across social media under the guise of actual news, it’s hard to separate reality from fiction.
That gap between truth and falsehood sadly permeates our culture today, so it’s no surprise that brands are often working off of inaccurate data. We’ve discussed previously how social data can often not be trusted, since consumers are likely to post what they think their friends want to see, rather than what’s really occurring in their lives. Similarly, even market research data can’t be trusted implicitly as it relies on the consumer to report how they use a product, rather than collecting actual user data. This means marketers are basing their strategies on what consumers say they do, not their real-life actions.
This is why it is imperative for brands in 2020 to start relying more on actual real-world insights rather than inferred data to understand consumer behavior. Salesforce reports that although 84 percent of consumers say the experience a brand creates is just as important as the product or service it sells, only 30 percent of brands use customer data to deliver those experiences. That’s a pretty dramatic gap! If we want to deliver the experiences customers expect – and win and retain those customers – we must start using reliable customer data.
In a recent blog post, we shared our commitment to delivering the most accurate, precise location data available today. Blis Blockchain, Smart Pin, and independent verification from Location Sciences all speak to this commitment. It’s from that incredibly high-quality data that we pull the insights that drive real-world intelligence. It is our aim to set the industry standard for not only understanding where your customers have been but predicting where they’re going.
With intelligence on the truth about what customers are actually doing, brands can gain a more accurate picture of consumers. By understanding how people actually behave in the world – how they shop, how they dine, what their patterns in daily life actually mean – brands can gain the insights they need to deliver more personalized, seamless and relevant experiences. It’s not enough to rely on broad demographic assumptions about how millennials mistrust marketing or how gamers prefer to shop in certain stores, for example. Each millennial is as different as is each gamer. Brands must endeavor to learn about their own customers.
A brand’s first-party data is of course the best place to start. It’s critical to know who your customers are, how they shop and what they buy. But there’s more to learn, and real-world intelligence is the best way to gain that knowledge. Blis is laser-focused on understanding real, human behavior, and we do this by analyzing huge quantities of the highest-quality mobile location data. This analysis delivers the truth about what people actually do, giving marketers the opportunity to drive more meaningful consumer engagement. With marketing powered by real-world insights, marketers can plan and measure campaigns more effectively, ultimately resulting in more sales. Business decision makers have a roadmap to plan everything from new products to the next store location.
Truth, gained from trustworthy data, will make the difference between relevant customer experiences and poor ones. Customers today expect personalization along their path to purchase, so knowing who your customers are and what they really want is critical to success. Marketers and other business decision-makers need reliable data and insights to deliver those tailored experiences.
Blis is committed to delivering reliable, trustworthy data and insights with full transparency into where that data came from and how those insights were gained. The brands that understand real human behavior are going to be the winners in the post-truth world, and we are fully dedicated to helping those brands succeed.
