Personalization: The ANA 2019 Marketing Word of the Year | Marketing Maestros | Blogs | ANA

Personalization: The ANA 2019 Marketing Word of the Year

December 4, 2019

By Bill Duggan

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“Personalization” has been selected by ANA members as the ANA 2019 Marketing Word of the Year. Voting was done online in late November. In total, 341 members participated.

Representative verbatim comments from those who voted for personalization are:

  • Personalization is what customers expect. Every current and prospective customer expects that your brand knows them and can deliver what they want.
  • Consumers are busy. Too busy to invest time with anything that's not relevant to them personally. It's all about relevancy, a.k.a. personalization. "Make it all about me."
  • In today's world of "me," personalization is how people want to consume information. Experiences need to be relevant and unique to the end user at nearly every interaction.
  • Personalization is the holy grail of brand marketing. It provides the ability to speak directly to the consumer or shopper with the right message, at the right time, in the right medium.

According to ANA’s Marketing Knowledge Center (MKC) Ask the Expert service, member questions on personalization started to pick up in 2018 and accelerated in 2019.

Despite the promise of personalization, marketers should use caution with their personalization strategies and tactics. Per the MKC Ask the Expert team, there is data suggesting consumers can be underwhelmed by marketing efforts to personalize interactions and there is also a perspective that more personalization does not necessarily provide a better experience. Further, there is some consumer skepticism, lack of understanding and even mistrust over the use data for marketing purposes.

Nonetheless, personalization presents significant opportunities for marketers to deliver more relevant communications and experiences for consumers and customers.

More details are in the report.


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