How to find the market of one

Organisations have long been promised that the age of the internet and its associated technologies would deliver an unrivalled opportunity to forge deeper and stronger relationships with customers.

Whilst companies have deployed systems which enable them to learn more and more about who their customers are, where they live, where they shop, what they read, how much music they download, etc they have yet to truly convert this into an approach which truly enables them to customise and deliver their services to the elusive ‘market of one’.

The reality is, the temptation to ring-fence groups of customers together based on demographics, geography, product holdings and the like is relatively straightforward, thus promoting a tendency to continue to market products and services to chunky, albeit specific, customer ‘segments’.

On the internet, the importance of Google Analytics and Search Engine Optimisation is helping organisations learn to adapt as they try to direct their offers to the customers most likely to consume them, but until now there’s been a fundamental missing link: Location, Location, Location.

The advent of sophisticated smart-phones with built-in GPS suddenly provides organisations with the power to make the ‘market of one’ concept a reality once and for all. Suddenly, we know who our customers are (they can log-in through robust, industry-standard security mechanisms), what they have got (the enterprise view of individual accounts, holdings, balances and shopping habits), and where they are (from the sophisticated location-aware mapping services in their phones)!

This means that suddenly organisations can present offers, rewards and information directly to individuals at the point where that information is of most use.

Imagine that you are walking along the high street, using you smart-phone, when suddenly up pops a note from your bank, offering you directions to their nearest office (only 50 metres away from your current position!) and presenting you with an instantly redeemable digital voucher offering 25% off travel insurance because, they know you’re going on holiday next week as you’ve booked through them and they also know that your travel insurance policy expired last month.

Suddenly, misplaced offers, better known to all of us as junk-mail or spam, become a thing of the past, as well-directed, sensitive opportunities replace them. This approach offers real value to individual customers, allowing them to take a more balanced footing in their relationship with their their bank, supermarket, etc. For companies, the approach delivers the holy grail of stronger, deeper and broader relationships with their customers through relevant cross-sell, up-sell and third-party-sell opportunities.