Why the cynicism around Google FLoC will catalyse a better customer experience

Instead of relying on opaque data sourced from tracking, how about treating the consumer as a real person?

During the recent months we've witnessed a seismic shift in how brands approach consumer data, privacy and trust. Following years of data misuse, brands rightly began to recognise the need to give consumers control over their data, giving rise to a series of initiatives on the part of tech giants. In April, for example, Apple's long-awaited App Tracking Transparency feature came into effect, with Google following suit a few weeks later, pledging that Android users could opt out of tracking. In parallel, Mozilla, Apple and Google all took steps to remove third party cookies. But while marketers and consumers alike have welcomed these changes, brands are nonetheless concerned about how they can personalise their offering without relying on the third party data they have used previously.

Between a FloC and a hard place?

Compounding this challenge has been a perceived lack of viable replacements for third party cookies, with the media awash with suspicion over Google's announcement of its new Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) initiative. Intended to replace cookies, FLoC looks at browsing behaviours and creates groups of individuals based on their shared interests. The aim is to give advertisers cohorts to target, rather than individuals, and therefore create a greater degree of privacy.

However, there is a growing backlash against the idea of a ‘label' being used to infer consumers' interests. There are also concerns that FLoC may not be as anonymous as Google implied, when it first pledged a cookieless future by 2022. In addition, from a governance standpoint, many are concerned with associated privacy issues, with a core element being the sharing of consumer data with advertisers. As a result, competitor browsers such as Vivaldi, Brave and DuckDuckGo have been publicly speaking against the FLoC model, and Microsoft-owned GitHub and Mozilla Firefox have said they will block the technology.

So with cookies on the way out and FLoC falling at the first hurdle, where does that leave the marketers and advertisers looking to target prospects and customers based on behaviours? Contrary to the perceived fears of many, it actually gives them an opportunity to create a much stronger marketing strategy.

The issue, whether cookies or FLoC, is that there is no integration of the website activity with the many other touchpoints by which a consumer can engage with a brand - in person, by phone, in-app, by email - even by real mail. There is no 360-degree accurate view of how an individual actually behaves - the algorithms simply focus on the browsing and there is no direct engagement with the customer. The time is therefore ripe for brands to rethink their approach to data, and to personalisation.

Putting the ‘person' in personalisation

Instead of relying on opaque data sourced from tracking, how about treating the consumer as a real person? As brands have enthusiastically embraced all things digital over the past three decades, have they lost sight of that most important aspect - the direct customer relationship? The whole debate around, and actions being taken, to ensure greater levels of privacy have been triggered because people want to be treated differently. They want organisations and brands to know their purchasing preferences and history and use that data intelligently to build trust and loyalty. They don't want to be ‘tracked', or ‘targeted' online by processes and systems that can only by their very nature offer vague single-channel personalisation.

Smart marketers know they need to quickly get to grips with creating a clear and suitable data strategy that will harness both FLoC and first-party data in a way that will allow them both visibility and control over their different data sources. Brands need to bring together customer behaviours from across all their channels - and crucially, they need to do that with the consent of the customer.

First-party data is the most valuable data of all as it comes directly from the individual. For example, completing a form before downloading information from a website, interaction with call centre staff, direct messaging on social media, SMS exchanges, in-store interactions - any touchpoint where the customer gives permission for the interaction to be recorded. This can be enhanced by zero-party data, where individuals offer up further insight into their requirements and preferences through proactively participating in activities such as surveys, quizzes, leaving a product review or participating in focus groups.

Bringing all this information together and keeping it secure on a centralised data platform gives brands an absolute goldmine, enabling them to develop truly personalised customer experiences and offerings, and to build strong relationships with their customers based on trust and consent, not targeting and tracking.

By continuously enhancing their knowledge of each customer based on known behaviours, brands can build proper profiles, and using the right platform, can analyse the data to predict future buying choices. This in turn will release far more value from their marketing budget by enabling precisely targeted campaigns based on accurate information. The demise of the cookie and the apprehension around FLoC are proving to be catalysts for a much better customer experience, and that can only be a good thing.

Tom Bianchi is EMEA CMO at Acquia