As consumers become increasingly comfortable abandoning brands, marketers and retailers are betting on personalized experiences to keep them around.
- 81% of Gen Zers and Millennials, and 74% of all shoppers worldwide have switched brands in the past year, per a December 2024 Salesforce survey.
- Enhancing personalization efforts and building brand trust and loyalty are two of the top priorities among marketing leaders worldwide, according to a December 2024 survey from The Marketing Geeks.
While brands can win over consumers through personalization, they can also turn them off by acting on their data without intentionality and transparency. In an environment where trust is delicate, marketers can maintain these audiences by spelling out how their data will be used to improve the experience.
“Don’t just chuck the data back at people and say, ‘We know you bought this, so therefore we’re going to give you this offer,’” said Clare Lawson, global president of Ogilvy One. “Brands need to think around the insight that they hold on you, and how that insight can add value.”
Finding creative use cases
Consumers are willing to share information with a brand when it comes with a clear value exchange.
- 80% of Americans are comfortable with their data being shared as part of a partnership, particularly if it means they’ll get benefits in return, according to a March 2024 Visa study.
Consumer retention doesn’t always have to come from a loyalty program. Lawson praised UK-based company Octopus Energy, which swaps standard hold music for a hit song from that customer’s childhood.
Using data to build the consumer relationship is crucial, and the best use cases are often subtle, she said.
“Spend a good amount of time understanding the data points that you really need about a consumer, so you can play the right and relevant role in their life,” said Lawson, who added that focused data collection often gets lost in the “era of hyper-personalization.”
Practicing data selectivity
Just as brands shouldn't just flaunt consumer data when it doesn’t improve their experience, they “need a data minimization strategy just as much as a data collection strategy,” said Lawson.
In an era of stricter privacy regulations, focused and behaviorally-led questions like “How do you spend your Friday evenings?” are more valuable than ever, said Lawson.
“It's almost like we're doubling back down on the direct marketing tactics of actually having to ask the right questions, because we can no longer guarantee that we can get the clues from a consumer's digital behavior,” she said.
Fighting feedback blindspots
Consumers aren’t giving feedback as much as they used to. Less than a third (32%) of consumers sent feedback directly to a company after a bad experience, down 7.7 points since 2021, according to a 2025 Consumer Trends report from XM Institute and Qualtrics.
“Consumers don’t necessarily understand how the information they’re providing is actually going to be used,” said Lawson. “So rather than providing feedback, particularly if it's negative, the likelihood now would be that a consumer will just switch off and move to a different brand.”
Data protection is the leading factor that influences consumer trust (83%), according to a May 2024 PwC report. Consumers are unmotivated to give feedback due to an “inherent mistrust in how brands will use data,” which makes building trust through transparency at the start of a relationship crucial, said Lawson.
“We’re now in a trust economy,” she said. “Rather than saying ‘We’re going to use your data for these reasons,’ it’s ‘You can trust us to only use your data for these reasons.’”
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