Whether you realise it or not, you prefer being marketed to by someone or something that relates to you, that fits in with your life and interests.

So when a brand fails to personalise its product to cater for consumers, it’s missing the mark in customer experience, a new study from hybris has found.

The findings from the Forrester Consulting-commissioned study, titled ‘The Contextual Marketing Imperative: the evolution of personalisation from push messaging to one-to-one personal customer experiences’ looked at the distinct gap between consumers’ expectations of personalised marketing and what marketers are actually delivering.

While 66 per cent of marketers rated their efforts at personalisation as “very good” or “excellent,” just 31 per cent of consumers reported companies are consistently delivering these kinds of campaigns across its various channels.

Because consumers are sharing so much personal data with brands, they expect value in return, however many still rely on segmentation methods that target certain demographics, such as a specific age group, which is not nearly enough to engage customers.

According to the study, 74 per cent of consumers are “somewhat” or “very comfortable” with companies using data about them to provide personalised experiences.

“Consumers today are bombarded with more marketing messages across more channels than ever before, and the vast majority of these communications are irrelevant,” SAP Hybris SVP product strategy and marketing solutions Charles Nicholls said.

“For this reason, it’s paramount that organisations are able to break through the noise and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.

“To make this a reality, marketers must go beyond traditional personalisation and towards contextualisation by leveraging real-time signals of customer intent at the moment when the customer chooses to interact with the brand.”

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