Personalization With Conversation Media Marketing - Marketing Strategy That Brands Need.

Imagine you are moving into a new home, the whole moving experience can be as exciting as it can be overwhelming. To decorate the now bigger home you buy a bookshelf and a bean bag from amazon.

Amazon knows and uses what it knows to provide the best experience to its users. So in the next few days, Amazon may suggest you buy bean bag fillers or books. In fact, it makes 35% of its sales from the “You may like this” recommendation section.

Even Netflix recommendations are also reported to be accurate and successful. 60% of Netflix movies come from recommended for you.

93% of companies report that personalized marketing leads to a higher conversion rate.

We love when brands know what we want and can provide us with relevant experiences.

There are many other ways personalization is being used and we will know them in a while.

But First, let’s start with the definition

Personalization is basically marketing targeted with the audience in mind. Personalization makes the customer feel special by showing them relevant ads. Not to mix it up with customization that is more about letting the customers make changes for themselves. Although the line between the two is often blurred.

Personalization is not just about recommendations that you get from Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, etc.

A Recommendation engine is just a type of personalization. Although it may be one that has made our lives simpler and along the way has made us a bit lazier.

Keyboard apps like GBoard, Bobble, Ginger, etc also provide a highly personalized texting experience. They remember that you would rather use the giggling emoji than the laughing one and make sure that you don’t waste time, every time you wish to find them. They also save you time with helpful suggestions, autocorrect, auto space, etc.

Recommendation engines and such keyboard apps have become a pertinent part of our lives in the past decade

Let's take a peek into a more advanced side of personalization, shall we?

Letting the users personalize

Brands are also realizing that customization or giving the chance to users to personalize services/products and making tailored products is a big hit amongst the users. You can see with the "Go Madbury" campaign by Cadbury where they ask users to invent their own Cadbury. Or with the hair care brand "Vedix" that takes pride in their products that are tailored fit for hair troubles of each individual. Vedix designs a haircare package after the consumers take an extensive quiz.

But nothing needs more personalization than the digital world. Without personalization, it just feels too Robotic. Since humans express 90% of their emotions haptically (without words) we have made sure to develop ways to express those emotions using texting. A reason why as of 2020 there are a total of 3,304 Emojis registered in the Unicode Standard.

But we didn't just stop at emojis......

Conversation Media (An Umbrella term for all form of visual aspects of online conversations like Gifs, Stickers, Avatars, Emojis) is being used to deliver personalized brand awareness experiences to users in the virtual world.

But since we adapted so many ways to express ourselves some of our favourite brands also have been reaching to us in a way that the people so in love with technology will understand. Smart brands are now using Conversation Media to reach their consumers in a more personal way coining the term Conversation Media Marketing.

You can change the outfit of your Bitmoji on Snapchat right now and dress it up with a real collection by Ralph Lauren. Digital Avatar Advertising is a hot trend in the world of marketing led by pioneers like Bitmoji and Genies. The potential of building brand awareness in such a personalized way is going to expand exponentially in the coming years for sure.

Another example of personalized brand awareness can be the recent collaboration of Bobble with Kingfisher. So any user using Bobble Keyboard can make a sticker of themselves holding a Kingfisher and send it to their friends after adding customized text into it.

One more example can be of Starbucks creating GIFs for promotion. Starbucks created 21 GIFs about its blended beverage targeting to its major youth buyers. And the campaign, without doubt, was a success amongst the GenZies and the Millenials alike. Because the next time people search about coffee GIFs they were met with these well made quirky Starbucks GIFs.

Conversation Media Marketing is not a newborn but it is reaching its prime making it the next big thing in Personalization and Personalized Marketing. Not only can brands reach the users in a personalized manner (via their virtual identity) but they will reach the right users at the right time without being intrusive.

Brands are using it left and right and the reasons behind this are quite simple.

• Evolution of Marketing From Mass Marketing to One to One Marketing.

• It makes money. Personalized Marketing and Efforts show high ROI.

• Provides better experiences to customers. 73% of consumers prefer to do business with brands that offer personalized experiences.

• Help them create a long term bond with their users.

Now, these are the reasons why marketers are so fascinated with customers. FYI these are not the only reasons. Personalization has a mix of quite complex technicalities. And we will deep dive into them some other time.

But since Marketing is all about customers, let us look at why users are also so fascinated with getting personalized experiences.

There are many psychological reasons behind our craving for personalized experiences.

Desire For Control

There is this old psychological trick that is useful for gaining favours. In it, you first ask someone for a small favour like asking them for a pen. Once they give it to you their subconscious will feel that like you. Now they are more likely to listen to the bigger favour and comply.

Personalization plays a similar trick. If you like this you may like that.

• 49% of people said that personalization can be a big motivator in making them buy things they did not intend to buy.

• 40% said they spent more than they intended because of personalization.

Amplification of Information

We live in a time of constant input and anyone with an internet connection has experienced that staggering feeling. Yes, the Internet makes the world seem much smaller than it is by giving people the power to connect with anyone. But it can be too much sometimes.

As the Boomers like to say “we didn’t have so many choices, consider yourself lucky”. But just because we have more choices doesn’t mean it is easier to choose. Personalization helps the brand reach its exact audience making lives simpler for users around the world.

And it is not just with shopping, movies, or songs. Personalization helps brands provide better experiences for their users/ customers.

In fact, according to the “2018 Accenture Interactive Personalization Pulse” report, 45% of potential customers have abandoned a website because the amount of information and number of choices was overwhelming.

The Inherent Desire to Feel Special

Laura Bright, associate professor of communication at Texas Christian University says that “Personalized products and experiences make us feel unique in a sea of sameness,”.

Jerad Zoghby, global lead for personalization at Accenture Interactive. “Customers like to feel unique. They appreciate a company that recognizes and remembers them and wants to make their experience enjoyable".

Human beings live in a paradox wanting to feel unique and wishing to fit in at the same time. Personalization gives you the way to feel special.

A music box is a cute gift but a music box engraved with your name is so much more special.

The keyboard we referred to. If you have a catchphrase like “You gotta be kidding me” often while texting then a good keyboard app just needs you to type You/ You Gotta.

Other than that, social media sites like Facebook remember your birthday and even remind others. Even your bank sends you a birthday wish. Instagram reminds you of memories from past years.

Personalization even saves you from embarrassment. Don’t remember your anniversary? Well, Facebook does. Don’t know what to get your mother for her Birthday? Amazon does.

⅔ rd of US customers prefer to buy from brands that offer relevant ads or personalized shopping experiences.

Personalization is the result of our very primal psyche. From sculpting stone tyres to move things quickly to google recommendations goals of human beings have always been to make life easier, feel special, and still be in control and that is exactly how personalization makes us feel.