Unlock the the power of personalization: How to tailor every touchpoint using data

In 60 seconds: 

• By tailoring every touchpoint in the customer journey, brands can create an experience that resonates with Gen Z shoppers and drives sales. 
• First-party data provides authentic insights that help brands truly understand Gen Z and create hyper-relevant campaigns, recommendations, offers, and content. 
• Personalization boosts loyalty and retention by delivering content that aligns with Gen Z’s wants and needs. 

‍

‍

Imagine walking into a store, and the salesperson knows your name, size, style, and purchase history. Based on this, they point you to your perfect item - it’s like a personal shopper without the admin. A life-changing, time-saving experience, right? (Maybe a bit creepy, but for the purpose of this conversation, let’s look past that for now.)

Take this concept, digitize it, and that’s what we’re here to discuss today.

Nowadays, advertising to Gen Z is a personalized game - it’s something you can’t afford to miss out on, and it’s the key to driving long-term loyalty. Personalization has, dare we say it, revolutionized the world of marketing. 

This blog is your ‘all you need to know’ guide: it’s a must-read for any and every brand wanting to attract Gen Z shoppers. We’ll be breaking down the essentials of personalized marketing, discussing how it enhances every step of the customer journey, and sharing how you can leverage data to secure spend. With real-world examples and best practice tips, as well as highlighting how the Pion team can be your guiding Gen Z star, you’ll walk away ready to elevate your brand. 

Ready? Set. Go.

What is personalized marketing and why is it important? 

For shoppers, a personalized journey makes for an improved experience - it’s quicker, easier, and more accurate. And for businesses, that means more sales. 

But where is this data coming from? 

Well, we live in a world of tech, with AI and data driving businesses every day. Ultimately, creating a hyper-personalized experience is about finding patterns and connecting the dots, predicting the needs, not just wants, of shoppers. 

It may sound like a lot. Truthfully, it is (at Pion, we can do the hard work for you, thanks to our first-party data, but more on this later!). However, when you get it right, you can truly change a customer’s relationship with your brand. Whether it’s dropping them an email to remind them to place next month’s skincare order or recommending a pair of jeans you know they’ll love, leveraging the data and personalizing the customer journey can totally transform your business. 

The power of first-party data and personalization 

So we touched on the power of first-party data when it comes to personalization, but, as promised, let’s dive into what it can really mean for your brand… 

1. It’s the key to building authentic connections

Gen Z doesn’t just value authenticity, they expect it. So you can’t really afford to miss out on this one, tbh. 

When they willingly share information (first-party data), they allow brands to understand their likes, dislikes, wants, and needs in an authentic way. 

It’s data straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. 

2. It makes for a more satisfying customer experience journey

Relevant, efficient, and engaging. What do those three things equal? A more satisfying customer experience, of course. 

With personalization, brands show customers they’re more than just numbers – they’re valued individuals (which drives customer satisfaction and loyalty). 

3. Personalization means connection

If you don’t know your consumer, you’re unlikely to get very far. But data allows you to strip it back and really get under the skin of Gen Z shoppers and provide them with personalized experiences. 

From product recs to personalized email marketing, zero-party data can help you create tailor-made content. 

4. Anticipating customer needs before they forget 

Let’s revisit that personal shopper analogy: there’s nothing worse than mindlessly browsing, knowing you want to buy something for your next night out, but not being able to find anything. Enter your personal shopper, who can pull the perfect item off the rail in seconds. Done, dusted, money spent. 

This is the power of zero-party data and personalization: it anticipates and understands a shopper more than they understand themselves (again, try to look past the potential creepiness). 

How does personalization benefit the customer journey?

The power of personalization lies in its ability to impact every stage of the funnel, from acquiring new customers right through to retention. 

Firstly, personalized campaigns can help you to attract new shoppers, grow consumer trust, and drive engagement. Whether it’s on your website, app, or digital marketing (or, ideally, all three), personalization helps shoppers feel seen. Like your brand understands them. Bingo - you’ve got their attention. 

Because your brand shows an understanding and interest in each and every customer, shoppers are more likely to engage (and spend with) you, compared to your uninspiring, one-fits-all competitors (crucial point here: one size does not fit all when it comes to Gen Z). 

Quick case study if you’re in need of some personalized customer service examples: Sephora uses customer data to provide personalized beauty recommendations and offers, as well as using augmented reality to allow customers to ‘try on’ makeup. The perfect example of try before you buy. 

Their loyalty program also centers around personalization and rewarding customers, whilst gathering data to power future experiences and offers. And with 80% of Gen Z saying that offering a loyalty program is more likely to make them shop with a brand, and 62% citing discounts and offers as initiatives that would make them want to join a loyalty program, the relationship between personalization and loyalty schemes is an important one. 

{{ctaDark}}

Basically, the more relevant the offers, the higher the average order value (AOV).  

And finally, that brings us nicely to retention. The gold dust of the marketing world. 

As discussed, harnessing that data can help you deliver relevant messaging, content, and product recommendations throughout the whole customer lifecycle.

From a shopper’s perspective, having a personalized experience shows them that you understand their pain points, and want to make their lives easier. You’re actively working to transform the buying process, and they’ll reward you with their spending again and again. 

From a brand’s perspective, personalization is more cost-effective than traditional advertising; after all, when you release a generic ad, the likelihood is the majority of people will have no need, or understanding of your product - the return on investment (ROI) is limited. Meanwhile, a personalized experience drives more customers to spend - the hard graft is at the beginning, but it’s more likely to pay off at the end.

Getting into the nitty gritty: How can Pion help you?

Simple and secure discounts with verification 

Gathering and working with data doesn’t come without its challenges: you don’t want to hassle or overwhelm customers with data requests, you’ve got limited resources, and you can’t make head nor tail of what you’ve got. 

By working with Pion, you can avoid these pain points altogether. Not to toot our own horn, but we’re experts in collecting data, analyzing it, and turning it into something meaningful. And with the right team in place, anything is possible… 

Pion’s verification platform Beans iD enables brands to offer exclusive discounts to the consumer groups most valuable to you, from students to key workers. In exchange for these discounts, we collect first-party data. Users of Pion’s discount marketplace, Student Beans, actively share data with brands when they:

• Join a program
• Access offers via a brand’s website, app, or stores
• Enter competitions  
• Complete polls and surveys 
• Interact with a brand’s offline, experiential, and OOH advertising via the Student Beans app

We then take these insights, work our magic, and help brands build more bespoke, full-funnel campaigns that target consumers on an individual basis - ta da! 

{{ctaNeon}}

Target students and Gen Z with Pion’s advertising product 

Ready to target and engage Gen Z? We sure are. 

With Pion’s Advertising products (driven by lots of lovely data, ofc), we can help you deliver targeted campaigns to students and Gen Z. 

Whether it’s utilizing our first-party data (based on the purchases and behavioral intent from millions of Gen Z shoppers) to improve your segmentation and retargeting, identifying and engaging high-intent audiences to align with your student marketing goals, or connecting with young shoppers with our Student Beans Creators, we’ve got you covered. 

Typical data points gathered by our team of experts include (but are not limited to) first and last name, gender, academic institution, year of graduation, and answers to bespoke quizzes and surveys. 

Using this intelligent data, we can help you drive sign-ups and redemptions of your gated discounts, rewards programs, app downloads, and much more. 

Basically, capturing leads and driving conversions. Slay. 

{{ctaLight}}

Understand Gen Z and test your campaigns with insights 

Okay, a slightly different type of data now, but it’s still the good stuff. 

Pion Insights can help you get to grips with Gen Z like never before. And test campaigns before launch to help you understand how and where students want to receive their personalized journeys. See how everything links nicely together? We’re the full funnel. Lovely. 

First up: understanding Gen Z. Through our Ask a Gen Z product, you can put your questions to our youth panel every month, giving you the opportunity to gain insights into Gen Z’s product preferences, brand perception, lifestyle choices, the list goes on. Armed with this data, brands can refine strategies, tailor offerings, and elevate brand relevance. 

Next up: bespoke research. We’ve spoken about personalization for your customers, but what about for you? Don’t get FOMO - we’re here to help. Working with our expert team, our bespoke research offering can gather real customer feedback on your brand, help you better evaluate the competitor landscape, optimize strategy, and authentically engage Gen Z in the relevant channel… dreamy, right? 

And we’re not done yet! One more product we want to highlight: testing. Here’s a quick lowdown on how we can help you make your campaigns really connect with and engage Gen Z:

Campaign effectiveness 

Working with Pion, you can run a test pre-, mid-, or post-campaign to find out exactly what is and isn’t working with Gen Z. Is the audience actually hitting those CTAs? What’s the purchase intent? And is there an increase in awareness? These are questions we’ll be able to answer, all packaged up nicely in a report, complete with solutions-focused takeaways. 

Creative testing 

One for the design phase, our creative testing offering measures whether audiences actually like your campaign, their purchase consideration, creative association, and what behavior is likely to drive engagement. 

We’ll help you identify any problems before launch so that when you roll out your campaign, you can do so knowing that it’s going to tick all of your goals. 

Concept testing 

Test ideas, statements, positioning, or brand messaging before they’re let loose into the world. 

Working with Pion’s Gen Z experts, understand preference, brand/messaging association, likely engagement, CTA drivers - the whole shebang. 

Understand what works for young shoppers, and when. 

Want to know more? Harness the power of personalization and remove the guesswork with Pion Insights.

Getting it right with Arizona Milk

In a world of oat milk flat whites and black americanos, dairy milk brands are up against some stuff competition, which is why Arizona Milk roped in the help of Pion. 

After noticing a decline in dairy consumption amongst young people, Arizona Milk wanted to gain insights into Gen Z’s perceptions and attitudes towards dairy milk. 

Working with Pion

Pion Research investigated young people's perceptions towards dairy and non-dairy alternatives using a mixed-method approach, combining surveys and focus groups. Research aimed to explore views on veganism, gauge understanding and perceptions to farming, identify preferred media channels for discovering food and drink, and understanding attitudes towards dairy and dairy-free alternatives, plus much more.

Outcomes

After working with Pion, Arizona Milk implemented a number of changes, including shaping their broader marketing strategy and partnerships, leading to a significant improvement in engagement with Gen Z consumers through a focus on in-person experiential campaigns.

‍

Want to know more about the power of personalization? Contact us to learn about our solutions for verification, advertising, and insights. 

‍