Competing on Customer Personalization

How did Amazon, Netflix, and Starbucks start their customer personalization programs? What was the starting point? What were the costs? Who was involved? The co-authors answer these questions in the very readable Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI. Mark Abraham and David Edelman explain that personalization is not email or glorified loyalty rewards programs in this show. Instead, this cross-functional activity starts with a few simple questions in their 5 Promises framework.

Interview Highlights

1. Mark’s name drop – Charles Rossotti
2. David’s 1989 article, Segment of One Marketing
3. A tip of the cap to Steve Blank and Renee Hartmann
4. Personalization is not just for big organizations
5. Three critical quotes in Personalized: Customer Strategy in the Age of AI
6. The personalization P&L
7. The Five Promises and why the order is important
8. Sungevity’s personalization example and how they got it right
9. The reason cross-channel orchestration can be challenging for smaller businesses
10. Mark’s favorite stories in the book
11. Michael Gerber’s hotel experience in the E-Myth
12. Fidelity knows they can improve their customer experience
13. The increase in loyalty cards is striking, but usage is dropping
14. The definition of customer 360s
15. Personalization in the media industry
16. The co-authors’ favorite books

You needn’t be a digitally native business to build a world-class personalization capability.

Mark Abraham and David Edelman

Important Links

• BCG’s book and author page
• Customer Strategy in the Age of AI (HBR)
• Mark Abraham bio
• David Edelman bio

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Episode Pairings