Capability: Marketing Technology & Architecture

Turning strategy into success: enabling the right customer experience to deliver on your growth targets

Posted on: 6 March 2025
Turning strategy into success: enabling the right customer experience to deliver on your growth targets

As businesses grow, so do the expectations of their customer experiences and those delivering it. Acquiring more customers, more products and, therefore, more data comes with increased complexity and an increasing demand on those in marketing, data and IT to enable growth.  

A successful growth agenda must consider not just the business goals, but the actionable steps to achieve them. These steps should include understanding the data, the insights it will deliver and the technical capabilities of how to scale. This can be a daunting challenge given the complexity and scope of the market.  

In this blog, we will explore how an enhanced customer experience can be delivered alongside business growth and the common issues businesses face, from operating at scale and delivering high-value experiences with limited technical resource to optimising technology for growth.   

The challenges of operating at scale

Businesses experiencing rapid growth on the journey from start-up to breaking into the mid-market and beyond find themselves in a complex landscape. With growing volumes of customer data, pressure to deliver an effective customer experience and legacy technology from early in the business’ trajectory, the challenge of maintaining that growth can be significant.  

These challenges can be broken out across the pillars of Data, Technology and People and Process. However, these are fundamentally reliant on each other, with each requiring attention to enable an impactful customer experience. 

Data is critical for understanding your customers and provides the foundation for your customer experience. Leveraging your customer understanding enables personalisation and brings you closer to a 1:1 relationship. The challenge is drawing insight from your customer data, considering things like segmentation and modelling to understand behaviour, then making that understanding actionable and available to be used for personalisation.  

This brings us to Technology. Underlying martech is the engine for customer experience, fuelled by data. Businesses often hold on to legacy systems and processes, which can become limiting factors when experiencing growth. Scaling existing technology can create bloat and operational inefficiencies as the aspirations are built on unsteady foundations.  

With Data and Technology in place, there is still the strategic element to consider. Mature, data-led businesses treat their customer experience as an iterative process. By monitoring campaign performance and understanding their customers, their communications are personalised across content, timing and channel, and they are constantly assessing how they can be more relevant and engaging for their customer. 

Enabling this iterative cycle requires a nimble customer experience, paired with the breaking down of silos between marketing, data and IT functions to enable your team to work efficiently and keep up with consumer demands.  

By putting customer understanding and activation along with the right tools in the hands of the marketer, they can identify and deliver high-value activities across customer acquisition, retention and win-back.   

Delivering high impact solutions with limited technical resources

The answer to the question: “What are the high-value activities of our brand?” is often hidden within the data. Focused insight gathering and customer understanding can reveal where in the process customers churn, what marketing is effective and what could be done better.  

Often the challenge here is again one of resource: finding someone with the right skills and resources to draw insight from data, present it clearly for marketers, data experts and C-suite, and then use this to inform the customer experience.  

This process is ongoing and iterative. A one-off solve will always be limited as customer needs, products and demographics evolve over time. Therefore, effective growth requires a dedicated measurement framework to ensure the customer experience is driving results.  

By taking a customer-first approach and prioritising your high-value activity, you can articulate what you need to deliver the experience effectively, whether that is more understanding of who your customers are, better capacity to automate and personalise, or more substantial reporting to continue iterating to grow closer to your customer.  

Optimising technology for business growth

High-value activities depend on the right technology. Legacy systems often hinder growth by limiting access to real-time data and advanced capabilities required for superior customer experiences. 

Growing businesses often outgrow legacy platforms, which lack the sophistication needed for modern demands. Upgrading to advanced marketing platforms allows companies to enable personalised, multi-channel journeys, automate tasks at scale and leverage AI-powered insights, helping marketers meet evolving customer expectations with greater efficiency. 

Selecting and implementing the right technology can be a challenge, however. The martech space is incredibly crowded with, at time of writing, over 14,000 products (per Scott Brinker’s State of the MarTech report), all with their capability, functionality and requirements. To select the right tool, businesses must consider what their aspirational customer experience is, how the tool integrates with the rest of their stack and how they are going to deliver value quickly after embarking on implementation.  

What should brands do and how can CACI help?

To successfully scale up your business without compromising your customer experience, CACI suggests considering your data, technology and operational processes ahead of making major changes. The key to growth is working backwards from your aspirational state to construct an actionable maturity roadmap. This ensures you are dedicating time and effort to the immediate priorities that will bring value back to the business while working towards your goal state. 

Our tried-and-tested approach of bringing together experts on Data, Technology, People and Processes has delivered results for complex brands like EasyJet and ASOS. CACI’s data-led, customer-centric approach focuses on enabling the customer experience by understanding the overall business vision and customer needs, considering market positioning and the steps a brand can take to sustainably and effectively deliver on their ambition. 

If you are looking to accelerate customer data or technology changes by connecting and activating your insight, please get in touch to discuss what strategies and solutions that our team of experts can help you deliver.

Related case studies

Process is the missing ‘P’ in Marketing Technology

Posted on: 13 August 2024
Process is the missing ‘P’ in Marketing Technology

Data and marketing technology are key enablers used by marketers to enhance their ability to engage customers through personalisation – however, they must be utilised properly to succeed. To do this, there must be a focus on process; how new tools are used, how roles and responsibilities of the teams will adapt and where opportunities to work more efficiently to increase scale and capacity within each team exist.

As one of the core pillars in how a marketing team functions (alongside ‘People’, ‘Data’ and ‘Tech’), ‘Process’ underpins everything to establish cohesive ways of working across teams with differing priorities. This is particularly important when we see that only around 20%(1) of customer engagement teams are owned by marketing, with the majority sitting within teams like IT and product. Therefore, ensuring clear processes are set up and implemented will help remove any potential gaps when teams are siloed and have different objectives.

At CACI, we have identified three core principles that should govern how businesses approach process when thinking about enhancing their marketing capabilities:

1. Processes should continue to evolve as new technologies are implemented

One process does not necessarily fit all situations. With new marketing technology companies continuously entering the market, and the more established MarTech platforms adding new features to keep up, an often-forgotten consequence is that teams do not then consider the need to continuously evaluate how their processes should evolve. As a result, any new technology or data systems will either only fix issues in the short term, or not make any difference at all from the systems they’re replacing . Therefore, ensuring that processes are reviewed regularly and incrementally will enable you to get the most out of the technology you’ve invested in.

2. Process is not limited to a single team or function – it should define how different parts of the business interact with each other

Different teams will have different priorities, meaning that if processes, roles and responsibilities are defined and understood across the business, then work is unlikely to be missed or de-prioritised. This is particularly important during peak periods and when you have multiple teams working on the same campaign or across multiple regions, where teams may become siloed across a business.

Furthermore, when creating a process for a team to follow, the entire end-to-end process must be considered – from the inception of the idea to the briefing and building, deployment, campaign analysis and future optimisations. While we would typically think about the build as the most process-heavy area, we must ensure that from start to finish, roles and responsibilities have been defined to maintain consistency across all projects.

3. Efficient processes will save you money, time and potential mistakes

Outdated processes can be a hinderance. If new technology or teams are added, but there are improper or irrelevant processes, you are unlikely to recognise the benefits you invested in. As a result, it will take significantly longer to realise any value from the investments you have already made.

This requires people, technology and data to integrate seamlessly, and having a rock-solid process can help this. By ensuring that the right processes are in place, you will also find that productivity increases, operating costs should decrease, errors will reduce, and you will be able to remove any duplication of effort.

How CACI can help

CACI can support you with setting up processes for your teams by reviewing current practices and recommending a more streamlined approach , either to assess your readiness to implement new technology or data, or to make the necessary changes around existing capabilities to make them work harder. A recent example of how we’ve grouped each section for new processes is as follows:

  • Ideation, strategy and planning
  • Resource planning and briefing
  • Design, content, copy and localisation
  • QA, testing and approvals
  • Data selections, set-up and execution
  • Reporting and measurement
  • Optimisation and iteration

However, all process mapping projects are bespoke to how you would be best set up to succeed. To find out more about how our experts can help set you up on the path to success, please get in touch.

Related content:

How Estée Lauder harness the “beauty of data” to transform their customer experience

Posted on: 5 March 2024
How Estée Lauder harness the “beauty of data” to transform their customer experience

At our annual Innovate & Accelerate conference, Daniel Lindsay, CRM, Data, Insights and Analytics Director at Estée Lauder, shared the business’ optimal pairing of data and magic behind beauty to enable their enterprise data transformation, taking the retailer from insight to instinct in order to personalise consumer experiences. This winning combination has contributed to the success of their brand value proposition, narrative and positioning through campaigns that struck a chord with consumers.

But how did Estée Lauder decide when the right time for data transformation was? What tools and strategies did they lean on to achieve this, and what were the results?

Why it was time for a big data transformation

Three years ago, Estée Lauder faced various evolutionary periods of marketing, from digital to connected media in terms of consumer interaction followed by the tailored messaging capabilities that came with leaning into data-led media and marketing , particularly first-party consumer data. The business was keen to ensure all their consumers were involved in their journey of change.

According to Daniel: “Our job as a leading beauty company in the UK is to evoke trust from the customer.” Consumers purchase from brands that they trust with their most personal spaces, so ensuring customers are at the root of the brand and understood as granularly as data personalisation allows for is vital. Estée Lauder quickly realised that connecting data to the personalised user experience would give them the competitive edge that they needed to remain an industry leader.

Challenges experienced when working on data transformation & how they were mitigated

Three years down the line of their data transformation, Estée Lauder has faced its fair share of challenges:

  • Heavily investing in consumer data. The business quickly realised their initial consumer data investments were conducted on outdated infrastructure, which complicated their ability to locate their target customer and get a unified view of them.
  • Effectively delivering analytics or insights that would drive fast action and improve accessibility. They had also outgrown their campaign management system, sparking a new consideration of ensuring whatever was brought into the business would connect consumers across the channels.
  • Upskilling and bolstering their in-house capability. This would enable enhanced futureproofing and strategic planning while also upkeeping resources.

Implementing CDP & campaign management tools

To tackle these challenges, Estée Lauder worked with CACI on implementing a customer data platform (CDP) workstream and an innovative campaign management tool, Braze. They also created a new access point for consumer data for quicker decision-making and initiated a change management piece to better plan for the future, with CACI’s support on refining in-house skills.

Working with CACI enhanced the business’ understanding of how their consumers shop across their portfolio of brands. The resulting data was released into Braze, and has more recently been added into Google, Meta and TikTok to take their understanding of consumer data to a new level.

The business’ value realisation through Braze was being able to engage with consumers and make their CRM channels the fastest growing traffic channel across all their direct to consumer (D2C) channels so far. They were also able to increase their key loyalty metrics by 16% in repeat and retention rates across all brands. This was demonstrated through one brand, Aveda, that despite a complex route to market journey, proved that having the right infrastructure in place enabled the business to successfully understand and track consumer points through email or SMS, which has been transformational for the business.

Data transformation in real-time: MAC Cosmetics case studies

Creating Black Friday success for MAC Cosmetics

Elena Hughes, Customer Strategist at CACI, elaborated on CACI’s support with the design and implementation of Braze in Estée Lauder, and its impact on the business’ strategic communications plan ahead of their peak period, Black Friday. This was a commercially critical time in the business’ calendar with a predicted high revenue generation, meaning that the business’ strategy had to be airtight.

To execute this, Estée Lauder assessed the data with CACI to understand how customers behave during peak promotional periods. This resulted in the emergence of four key customer groups:

  • Gifters
  • Price-driven audience
  • Loyal
  • Lapsed (one-off)

The strategy needed to take a segmented approach to tailor the messaging to these specific audiences, which enabled newfound opportunities for creative enhancements as well. As a result, the business noticed a 23% increase in trading performance post-implementation of the strategy, proving the campaign’s effectiveness despite an obvious time crunch and key information presented for access in the most suitable way of actionable insight.

Activating a triggered lifecycle programme at MAC Cosmetics

Replenishment, automated trigger and cross-sale messaging were critical components of the business’ triggered lifecycle programme. Their Black Friday campaign success came from distilling a multitude of strategy-shaping data points.

Learning lessons towards achieving data transformation

Despite maintaining relatively stable sales around Black Friday, CACI’s Cost of Living and purchasing data proved to be crucial to Estée Lauder’s success. While the business noticed that some of the more luxury products like serums declined in sales, the resulting data showed that the “lipstick effect” prevailed and that customers still want to feel good about themselves no matter the economic circumstances, demonstrated in the purchasing of what consumers consider to be essential products.

The business is now equipped with the necessary data to enter peak shopping periods and continue developing efficiencies and creative assets that resonate with customers.

How CACI can help

If you or your business are looking to accelerate customer data or technology changes by connecting and activating your insight, please get in touch to discuss what strategies and solutions that our team of experts can help you deliver.

Unlocking seamless navigation with Braze’s central search function

Posted on: 20 February 2024
Unlocking seamless navigation with Braze’s central search function

 

Braze’s recent navigation feature is a game-changer, offering users an enhanced and intuitive experience throughout the platform. In this article, I delve into the upgraded interface and focus on the central search function, a powerful tool designed to streamline user access and efficiency. So, how does it work, and what difference will it make for managing your campaigns and content?

What is Braze’s central search function feature and how does it work

At the core of Braze’s latest update lies the central search function, revolutionising how users interact with the platform. This dynamic tool allows users to find and access specific campaigns, canvases, email templates, segments and pages effortlessly by using keywords. Accessible via the top-of-the-dashboard search bar or keyboard shortcuts (⌘ + K for Mac, Ctrl + K for Windows), users can initiate a search with results instantly displaying below. The search results display both recent and archived content, minimising clicks and ensuring a seamless user experience.

The results you can see – explained

When you search using keywords, you will find the following results:

  • Campaign names: Find any campaign names that are active, stopped, drafted or archived.
  • Canvas names: Find any Canvas names that are active, stopped, drafted or archived.
  • Email template names: Locate templates in your template gallery.
  • Pages: Navigate to any page within Braze– whether it’s “Canvas”, “Data Exports” or “Webhook Templates”, you can land right on it.
  • Segment names: Find any segments that are currently active or have been archived.

Screengrab showing Braze Central Search Functionality

Why is this feature so important?

The central search function is a gamechanger because it enables you to:

  • Rapidly locate and access active, stopped, draft, or archived campaigns and canvases
  • Effortlessly find email templates in your template gallery
  • Navigate directly to specific pages within Braze, such as “Canvas”, “Data Exports” or “Webhook Templates”
  • Locate both current and archived segments with ease.

Not only does this streamline navigation and accessibility across the platform by allowing users to quickly find and access what they need, its intuitive design, coupled with the ability to seamlessly access recently viewed content, transforms the user experience, catering to both new and experienced Braze users.

Screengrab, Braze search feature

Keyboard shortcuts to keep in mind

Below are some of the easy keyboard shortcuts that you can use to navigate through the central search window:

Key takeaways

  1. Efficient navigation overhaul: Braze’s latest update introduces a streamlined navigation interface, enhancing user accessibility and efficiency across the platform. The seamless design ensures users can effortlessly find and access key features, marking a significant improvement in the overall user experience.
  2. Central search function as a power tool: The central search function emerges as a pivotal feature, allowing users to quickly locate campaigns, canvases, email templates, segments and pages with ease, along with being able to see their status categorised as active, stopped or archived.
  3. Empowering marketing teams with precision: The central search function addresses common challenges faced by marketing teams by providing quick access to essential elements. This feature empowers marketers to navigate Braze effortlessly, fostering productivity and efficiency in campaign management and content creation.

If you’re interested in learning more about Braze or you’re a Braze user looking to maximise value, be sure to get in touch with us to speak to one of our experts.

Want to learn how to elevate your brand using Braze’s generative AI? Click here to read more.

Using CDP to design a successful business operating model

Posted on: 3 October 2023
Using CDP to design a successful business operating model

In our last post, we shared some tips for a successful CDP implementation. In this post, we focus on one of the most critical factors for CDP success: designing a new business operating model. If you’d like to read all the blogs right away, you can register here to access the complete series.

We often find that organisations try to solve their marketing challenges by only changing their data and tech capabilities. However, people and process changes alongside this are just as important.

With the introduction of a CDP, businesses gain access to different capabilities that enable greater automation and efficiencies. The challenge lies in how to best adopt the use of these new capabilities, especially when an organisation currently consists of multiple teams, each responsible for different channels, life stages, products or customer segments.

A new operating model is needed to redesign and reorganise these teams, ensuring that processes are designed with the new capabilities in mind. This ensures that the organisation fully benefits from its capabilities.

Without a well-designed operating model, businesses may fail to harness the full potential that a CDP has to offer. In this blog, we will discuss the best practices for designing a new business operating model to get success from a CDP implementation.

Step 1: Conduct a business-wide assessment of the existing operating model

A business-wide assessment covering a review of the existing operating model is a good place to start. This will help identify gaps and inefficiencies that need to be addressed before implementing a CDP. These gaps may be related to skills as well as the actual number of resources required by various functions.

Step 2: Establish design principles

Next, establish CDP operating model design principles that will guide the development of the target model. This will ensure that the CDP capabilities are utilised efficiently and effectively. When designing the target operating model, consideration needs to be given to the re-allocation of resources and the impact on individuals whose jobs will likely change. Ideally, the new operating model will enable them to work more effectively and efficiently. However, any change needs careful consideration and planning ahead of roll out.

Step 3: Get the necessary buy-in from stakeholders

A step-by-step approach will ensure success. It is important to get buy-in from leadership to ensure that everyone is aligned and invested in the project. This will help to ensure that communication, process and people collaboration are effectively managed. A steering committee is necessary and plays a vital role in the design of the operating model and the management of delivery. Within that, having CDP advocates who will champion the new operating model will help drive adoption across the organisation.

Overarching best practices to consider

When designing the target operating model, it is important to balance rigour with flexibility. A CDP implementation should account for the impacts on different parts of the business in different ways, from reducing the burden on data engineers to empowering marketers to deliver real-time use cases. This requires a collaborative effort between teams and a willingness to adapt to new ways of working.

Ultimately, designing a new business operating model is critical to the success of a CDP implementation. By taking a step-by-step approach, establishing CDP advocates and balancing rigour with flexibility, businesses can maximise the value of their CDP investment and gain a deeper understanding of their customers. The key consideration of change a CDP brings such as communication, process, people collaboration, and the need for leadership buy-in make it clear that CDP success is not just about data and marketing technology.

How can CACI help?

As subject matter experts at CACI, we can tell you that a well-implemented CDP can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and we have hands on experience with many brands including ASOS, Kingfisher, L&G, PlayStation, Telegraph, EasyJet and DFS.  If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experts.

This post is the part of a blog series on all things CDP, so make sure to check out our previous blogs to get a complete picture of CDP implementation best practices. If you would like to download the whole blog series, you can simply register here to download a copy of the whitepaper.

If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us and reach out to one of our experts.

Continue reading:

Blog 1 – How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

Blog 2 – CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

Blog 3 – CDP and CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

Blog 4 – How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

Posted on: 19 September 2023
How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

In our previous post, we discussed how Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) are paired with Customer Experience Platforms (CEPs) to form a powerful duo in the modern marketing technology architecture. In this post, we will dive deeper into how to approach implementing a CDP as a core part of your marketing technology architecture. If you’d like to read all the blogs right away, you can register here to access the complete series.

Approaching CDP implementation through use cases

Adopting a use case-driven approach to CDP implementation is one of the key enablers as it helps you determine what data you require in your CDP. Most organisations have amassed huge amounts of customer data, and approaching the CDP implementation using use cases helps make sense of what data is most pertinent for marketing. It also enables you to be selective about what data you integrate into the CDP, which is important as integrating all available data can be a complex and resource-intensive process.

Prioritise use cases based on value and ease of implementation

Once you have defined the use cases based on customer problems that can be solved through improved customer experiences, prioritise them based on their value and ease of implementation. Rather than an exhaustive effort to try and integrate all data in one go, this approach allows you to start seeing value from the platform by getting your priority use cases live within a short timeframe. This enables you to define and prioritise subsequent use cases, which you can then implement in a phased manner.

Another key benefit of this approach is that it enables you to identify any challenges and refine your approach before tackling more complex use cases. This reduces the risk of overloading the platform with unnecessary data and use cases, which can lead to poor performance and complexity.

Test and optimise for effective CDP implementation

It is also important to adopt a test and optimise approach. This means testing each use case and optimising it based on the results. This will help you to continuously improve the customer experience and deliver more value to your customers.

How can CACI help?

Implementing a CDP as a core part of your marketing technology architecture requires a use case-driven approach. This approach enables you to determine what data you require in your CDP and prioritise use cases based on their value and ease of implementation. It also allows you to start seeing value from the platform within a short timeframe and refine your approach before tackling more complex use cases. By adopting a test and optimise approach, you can continuously improve the customer experience and deliver more value to your business and customers.

As subject matter experts at CACI, we can tell you that a well-implemented CDP can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and we have hands on experience with many brands including ASOS, Kingfisher, L&G, PlayStation, Telegraph, EasyJet and DFS.  If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experts.

In our next post, we’ll explain how crucial a new operating model is for the success of a CDP. If you wish to download the full blog series now, click here.

If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us and reach out to one of our experts.

Continue reading:

Blog 1 – How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

Blog 2 – CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

Blog 3 – CDP and CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

Blog 5 – Using CDP to design a successful business operating model

CDP and CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

Posted on: 7 September 2023
CDP and CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

In our previous post, we explained the differences between a Single Customer View (SCV) and a Customer Data Platform (CDP). Now we’ll consider how the CDP integrates with another component of the modern marketing stack, the Customer Engagement Platform (CEP). If you’d like to read all the blogs right away, you can register here to access the complete series.

What makes CDP and CEP the perfect pair in a MarTech stack?

In recent years, there has been an emergence of modern CEPs that have transformed the way companies engage with their customers. Legacy campaign management technologies enabled companies to harness their rich customer data and orchestrate outbound comms to traditional channels such as Email, SMS and Direct Mail. However, these technologies tend to be driven by batch data and had limited capabilities in digital channels.

Modern CEPs, on the other hand, are inherently real-time, allow integration of digital data (either natively or via a CDP), and offer a wealth of new ways to engage with customers in mobile apps or on websites. While these capabilities are hugely valuable to marketers, their value when combined with a CDP is further enhanced. Why? Well, the CDP helps marketers make the most of their data and provides the CEP with a richer set of attributes to drive ever-more-personalised and engaging experiences.

When a CDP is combined with a Customer Experience Platform (CEP), it creates a powerful duo that can provide even greater value to businesses. A CEP enables companies to orchestrate and deliver personalised customer experiences across multiple channels, while a CDP provides the necessary data to make those experiences relevant and impactful.

Key considerations for integrating CDP & CEP technologies

It’s important to keep in mind some key considerations when integrating these two technologies. Designing and following data usage principles between the CDP and CEP will ensure optimal value is created from these two marketing technologies.

Assessing minimum data requirements

While the CEP will want to inherit all the aggregations/derivations from a CDP as well as some customer event data – sending too much data to a CEP can hinder its effectiveness. Therefore, it’s important to carefully consider the minimum data CEP needs to accept to deliver marketing use cases.

Avoiding data overload

When taking a use case-driven approach to data requests, one will ensure that the CEP will not be flooded with data; personalised experiences will be incrementally delivered and monitored to stay relevant to each customer’s needs and preferences.

How can CACI help?

The synergy between a CDP and a CEP is undeniable. By leveraging the power of personalisation and taking a strategic approach to data integration and requests, businesses can create seamless and impactful customer experiences that drive loyalty and revenue.

As subject matter experts at CACI, we can tell you that a well-implemented CDP and CEP can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and we have hands on experience with many brands including ASOS, Kingfisher, L&G, PlayStation, Telegraph, EasyJet and DFS.

In our next post, we’ll explain the best approach to take when implementing a CDP. Or click here to download the full blog series now.

If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and CEPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to contact us and reach out to one of our experts.

Continue reading:

Blog 1 – How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

Blog 2 – CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

Blog 4 – How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

Blog 5 – Using CDP to design a successful business operating model

CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

Posted on: 23 August 2023
CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

In our previous post, we explained the role of the Customer Data Platform (CDP) in modern marketing architecture. Now, we turn our attention to another critical component of the marketing stack – the Single Customer View (SCV). If you’d like to read all the blogs right away, you can register here to access the complete series.

What is the difference between a CDP and a SCV?

While the CDP and SCV are often confused with each other, they serve different purposes and have distinct characteristics. In this post, we will explore the benefits of having an SCV in the foundation layer and how it differs from the CDP.

Having a Single Customer View (SCV) in the foundation layer provides several benefits for businesses. Firstly, it enables businesses to build a comprehensive understanding of their customers by providing a unified and persistent view of customer data across all touchpoints. Secondly, it allows businesses to implement governance for enterprise-wide data management, ensuring data quality and consistency. Thirdly, it supplies a reliable source of customer data for analytics, reporting and decision-making. Finally, it lays the foundation for personalised experiences by providing a complete picture of the customer that can be used by marketers to deliver targeted and relevant experiences.

The SCV is where your customer data is mastered and where your business logic and definitions are applied. The output is a clean set of validated data that is presented in a useful way for your business and is ready for use in your engagement and activation layers. The SCV is where your business can address some common and critical issues with data, such as:

  • Validating and cleansing your data
  • Standardising of output and definitions
  • Consistent application of common business definitions and logic
  • Curation and presentation of data based on business application, making the data easy to use

On the other hand, the CDP is a more marketer-centric tool that empowers marketers with the ability to activate omni-channel personalised customer experiences. It is designed to make it easier for marketers to access and use customer data without relying on data engineers or IT teams. The CDP enables companies to use customer data to deliver targeted and personalised experiences across all channels.

While both the SCV and CDP are valuable tools, they are not interchangeable but instead play complementary roles.

Failing to have both an SCV and a CDP can lead to significant risks and negative impacts. For example, without an SCV, companies may struggle to make sense of their customer data, leading to missed opportunities for personalisation and engagement. Without a CDP, companies may struggle to activate that data and deliver personalised experiences, leading to lower customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Ultimately, businesses that want to improve their customer experience should have both an SCV and a CDP. While the SCV provides a foundation layer of customer data, the CDP empowers marketers to activate that data and create personalised experiences.

How can CACI help?

As subject matter experts at CACI, we can tell you that a well-implemented CDP can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and we have hands on experience with many brands including ASOS, Kingfisher, L&G, PlayStation, Telegraph, EasyJet and DFS.  If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experts.

In the next post, we’ll consider how the CDP pairs with another key component of the modern marketing stack, the Customer Engagement Platform (CEP). Or if you’d like to download the full blog series in advance, click here to download.

Want to speak more about CDP and it can help you elevate your customer and marketing strategy? You can contact us here to speak to one of our experts.

Continue reading:

Blog 1 – How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

Blog 3 – CDP+CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

Blog 4 – How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

Blog 5 – Using CDP to design a successful business operating model

How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

Posted on: 8 August 2023
How a CDP can transform your customer experience architecture

This is the first post from our new series on Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). From debunking common misconceptions to exploring the power of combining CDPs with other cutting-edge technologies, we’ll be diving deep into all things CDP – and showing you how to make the most of this game-changing technology. If you’d like to read all the blogs right away, you can register here to access the complete series.

What is a customer experience architecture?

If you’re in the world of marketing, you’ve probably heard of CDPs. But what exactly are they, and how do they fit into a modern marketing architecture?

Marketers can find CDP vendor websites confusing due to their use of language that may make CDPs sound like other components in your architecture. For example, they may claim that CDPs bring together all your customer data in one place (like an SCV) or can deliver highly personalised customer experiences (similar to other marketing platforms). However, despite this confusion, CDPs play a critical role in modern technology stacks. In this blog post, we will provide a fresh perspective on the topic to help explain the role of the CDP and its place in modern marketing architecture.

Where do CDPs fit into modern marketing architecture?

At CACI, we view modern marketing architecture as a framework with five layers:

For many vendors, CDPs typically belong in the activation layer of this framework. It takes data from the foundation layer and then feeds marketing technology in the engagement layer with data in the format that marketers need to deliver highly personalised experiences.

Some CDPs may, however, offer more foundational layer capabilities whilst others can be more engagement focused. For simplicity, our framework defines the primary purpose of the CDP is to activate marketing data, which is why we put it at the heart of the activation layer.

How can a CDP enhance your customer experience architecture?

It’s important to note that a CDP should be thought of as marketing technology, rather than data technology. Its role is to empower marketers with data, removing their reliance on data engineering and allowing them to focus on strategy and campaign execution. A CDP brings a lot to the party, providing marketers with the tools they need to create effective campaigns and drive business results, such as:

  • A CDP can natively capture digital data, making it easier for marketers to activate audiences across a variety of MarTech and AdTech channels in real-time.
  • By enabling the delivery of highly personalised experiences across channels, a well-implemented CDP can help businesses improve customer engagement and increase conversions.

How can CACI help?

As subject matter experts at CACI, we can tell you that a well-implemented CDP can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes and we have hands on experience with many brands including ASOS, Kingfisher, L&G, PlayStation, Telegraph, EasyJet and DFS. If you’re interested in learning more about CDPs and how they can help your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to one of our experts.

In our next post, we’ll explain why businesses should not choose between a CDP and a Single Customer View (SCV). If you can’t wait until then, you can register here to download the whitepaper which contains the full blog series.

Interested in learning more about how CDP an support your customer strategy? Contact us to speak to one of our experts today.

Continue reading:

Blog 2 – CDP vs. SCV: why choosing between the two is a big mistake

Blog 3 – CDP+CEP: A perfect pair for a seamless customer experience

Blog 4 – How to avoid pitfalls & drive results in CDP implementation

Blog 5 – Using CDP to design a successful business operating model