Melissa AU Team | APAC, Customer Data Platform | apac, cdp industry

By 2040, the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is expected to become the largest consumer market. This is being driven by multiple factors including a rapidly growing middle-class population, digital connectivity and growth in disposable income. The APAC region offers numerous economic opportunities but to succeed here, companies must tailor their strategies to meet the demands of a diverse market with high expectations.

APAC consumers expect personalized service with a seamless online and offline, omnichannel experience. As customers get more comfortable shopping, seeking entertainment, making financial transactions, etc. online, it is more important than ever for businesses to align the online and offline customer experience. For that, they need to be able to gather and structure customer data.

It isn’t surprising to note the growing demand for Customer Data Platforms (CDPs). CDPs are software packages that have the ability to ingest, manage and structure customer data to create unified customer profiles, derive insights from brand interactions and make this data available across the organization.

According to a report by the CDP Institute, the share of CDP vendors has grown by 79% from 2019 to 2021. And, it is primed for further growth. Let’s take a closer look at the state of CDP in APAC.

Most CDP Vendors Focus On Orchestration And Automation

CDPs can be categorized into 4 types on the basis of their functionality; data management, orchestration, automation and measurement. Of these, CDP vendors in the APAC region are most interested in creating solutions for orchestration and automation.

Orchestration refers to using CDPs to segment the audience according to varying demographic rules, interests and engagement patterns for marketing campaigns. This allows them to personalize content to suit customers and make their messaging more relevant. CDP Automation is all about being able to natively execute marketing campaigns.

Southeast Asia And China Are The Biggest CDP Markets

The definition of the APAC region and the countries included can vary from case to case as there are no official boundaries. It usually refers to countries in East and Southeast Asia and Oceania. Of these, China is the biggest country with the highest population.

In light of this, it is interesting to note that CDP vendors generate maximum revenue from China. This is followed by markets in Southeast Asia and then, India. In these areas, CDP vendors have to deal with vast amounts of customer data, unique market intricacies and digital ecosystems.

Australia, on the other hand, is taking the lead for CDP maturity in data governance as brands here have to work harder with the data available to them.

The Retail And Financial Sectors Are Most Ready For CDPS

APAC retail consumers represent more than 50% of the global consumer class. So, it is understandable to see how the retail industry takes up the top spot in terms of revenue generation by industry for CDP vendors.

They are followed by the Financial Services industry. Compared to other sectors, these 2 industries have the most need to create and manage customer data assets. For retailers, customer data is critical to making relevant product suggestions, tailoring marketing campaigns and product development.

For financial services, CDPs are integral not only to marketing teams but most importantly, to ensure compliance with data privacy regulations. Airlines and the hospitality sector are also implementing CDPs to deliver better customer experiences.

APAC Customers Focus – 5 key CDP features

Every CDP user has a different focus. Some prioritize on results while others focus more on tasks and context. However, 5 CDP features can be identified as the most focused on in APAC market.

• Creating A Unified Customer Profile

The primary use for CDPs is to gather data from all available sources and bring the same together to create a complete customer profile or a Golden Record rather than have partial profiles siloed in different databases. This incorporates a number of different types of data including personal information, behavioral and contextual data.

To create this, the CDP needs to perform multiple steps beginning with collecting data and standardizing formats. The data must then be cleaned, verified and validated. By comparing data from multiple sources as well as third-party databases, missing information may be filled in and duplicates can be eliminated.

• Segmenting The Audience

Once unique and complete customer profiles have been created, CDPs are used to segment the audience into different groups. This segmentation could be on the basis of various factors including profile data, campaign performance, contact history, etc.

• Defining Marketing Campaign Targets

CDPs are also commonly used for marketing campaign data orchestration. This means defining audiences for each campaign. On one hand, it involves applying rules and selecting the right segments and on the other, it involves making relevant data available to different endpoints such as mobile or email systems.

• Reporting

CDPs are also used to score data and create reports to measure performance. CDP vendors allow marketers to track customer interactions across channels and derive insights from the same. This can be useful for journey mapping, understanding revenue attribution, creating predictive models and more.

• Data Management

CDPs play an important role in maintaining a high-quality database. They can automate several data management tasks such as format standardization, merging records and deduplication. For example, it can merge two records with the names “John Smith” and “John A. Smith” if they are linked to the same address and phone number. They can also help with data enrichment tasks as well as data governance. For example, CDPs can be used to define data access and monitor its usage.

Conclusion

As APAC businesses rise to the challenges of the digital world, the importance given to customer data and Customer Data Platforms is set to rise in the coming years. Today, getting personal information from customers isn’t as challenging as structuring and managing it to make it useful. For standardizing and managing customer data Enterprises should consider implementing a good Data Quality solution along with CDP to make it much more effective. For such use case Melissa’s Data Quality tools will be very effective.

CDPs can help businesses derive insights from the data available to them and use it to build long-lasting relationships with their customers. Ultimately, it is these relationships and the ability to offer personalized service that will drive their success.