A dutch perspective on contextual marketing

Beyond personalisation: European perspectives on contextual marketing

Beyond personalisation:
A Dutch perspective on contextual marketing
Dutch CMOs are beginning to use contextual data but
find it challenging to identify relevant contexts and
produce messages effectively in particular contexts—and
thereby to fully embrace contextual marketing
As the ability to capture information about customers and prospects increases, marketers are learning
to deal with the subtleties of the data they collect and use them to communicate their brand message
effectively. Contextual marketing—the use of data such as a customer’s or prospect’s location,
the activity they are currently involved in or their buying intentions—presents marketers with an
opportunity to take their marketing to the next level.
Marketers in the Netherlands understand the power that data give them to deliver customised
experiences across marketing channels. Yet many still struggle to define contextual marketing and
move beyond personalisation to find ways to provide even deeper value to customers.
“We don’t use the term contextual marketing,” says Alex Bloemendal, manager e-commerce at online
retailer Wehkamp.nl. “What we do is brand marketing and performance-based marketing, using data
sets to be as relevant in context as we can for our customers. If contextual marketing means individual
data from the customer for personalisation, then it is core. It is one of the foundations any retailer
should work on for the customer, now and in the future.”

Sponsored by:

A survey of marketing executives conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of SAP
examined the state of contextual marketing in five west European markets, including the Netherlands,
where the survey identified the top two strategic marketing priorities: improving awareness and
perception of the brand and improving customer loyalty.

About the survey
This article draws on a survey of 165 chief marketing officers conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit in the summer

of 2015. In addition to 33 marketing executives from the Netherlands, the survey includes respondents from France, Italy,
the UK and the Nordics (Denmark, Norway and Sweden). One-half of respondents represent organisations in the retail
sector, with the remainder drawn from a range of industries. Of these, just under one-half (47%) represent companies with
US$100m-500m in annual revenue, the remainder companies with US$500m and above.

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015


Beyond personalisation: European perspectives on contextual marketing

Which of the following are currently your top strategic marketing priorities? Select up to three
(% respondents)

Netherlands

Europe

Improving awareness/perception of brand(s)
48
58

Improving customer loyalty
45
37

Understanding customers better
42
40

Increasing customer engagement

42
41

Improving the customer experience
33
28

Ensuring marketing staff has right skills
27
30

Improving ROI of marketikng activities
27
30

Becoming more cost effective
27
30

Other
3
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When considering strategic marketing priorities in the European market and the role of contextual
marketing, MSD Netherlands (Merck & Co. in the US and Canada) is in a unique position. As a
healthcare company, MSD is not allowed direct access to consumers. So any contextual marketing
has to be conducted via healthcare providers, who help to communicate the company’s message to
patients.
“In healthcare, contextual marketing can be difficult,” says Joppe Jansen, European franchise director
at MSD. “The information we collect is about patient populations, not individuals. We are not using

patient population data a lot right now, but we do want to use it in the future. We want to map the
patient journey from when they first decide to see a physician.”
In the Netherlands, marketers harvest relevant data to understand how customers and prospects
interact with the company on social media and to identify customer satisfaction. Yet marketers know
that all data elements are not created equal. The information most frequently collected by Dutch
marketers consists of location data (91% of respondents) and data about the customer’s current
offline behaviour (88%). Most marketers use location data for marketing (55%), although some (36%)
collect these data but are not yet able to use them.
Online behaviour is important too. Four out of ten Dutch companies collect data relating to their
customers’ online activity. Like their counterparts in other west European countries, one-third
of Dutch marketers in the survey report that they are not yet using data they collect that reveal a
customer’s planned actions.
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© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015


Beyond personalisation: European perspectives on contextual marketing

Although the best marketing channel to use may vary by category or customer, the survey reveals
that a brand’s website remains critical to the successful collection of contextual information about
customers and prospects. Social media is critical for collecting data too, coming fourth on the list after
website, email and in-store personnel.
MSD finds that this is a very useful channel, given that the company is prohibited from collecting
information about individuals. Social media allows MSD to collect contextual data on a population
level, such as tracking the words people use when discussing healthcare issues.
The company has also created its own channel for collecting information. To help improve adherence to
a drug regimen, it has created a new way to track one of their injectable drugs to ensure that patients
are storing it at the right temperature. A chip added to each injector sends real-time data to the
customer’s pharmacy. Data such as these are invaluable to MSD in understanding patients’ behaviour

and will enable the company to market more accurately to patients in the future.

Which of the following practices at your organisation current incorporates contextual information?
(% respondents)

Netherlands

Europe

Communicating with prospective customers
70
66

Issuing special offers
67
56

Identifying prospective customers
67
59

Communicating with existing customers
64
58

Building brand recognition
55
50

Alerting customers to new products/services

55
52

Building customer loyalty
52
51

Other
3
1

When thinking about marketing practices, Dutch marketers prefer to use contextual marketing to
communicate with and identify prospective customers (70% and 67% of respondents, respectively),
issue special offers (67%), and communicate with existing customers (64%).
Wehkamp.nl, for example, is putting some thought into how contextual marketing can make a
difference in communicating offers to customers. The company is investigating targeting offers based

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015

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Beyond personalisation: European perspectives on contextual marketing

on the device a customer is using. “Something we’re looking at is if you are logged on through your
app, can we give you other offers or discounts versus if you are logged on via the website.”
Although most companies in the Netherlands do not currently use contextual marketing to alert
customers to new products and services, marketers know that this kind of communication could be
improved with the use of contextual information.
Almost all Dutch companies surveyed believe that their customers are willing to share information with

them, depending on the circumstances. Marketers believe that almost half would be happy to share
some types of data without getting anything in return, such as location data, information about what
they are currently doing offline or online, how they are currently feeling, and what they are planning to
do. When it comes to sharing personal interests or friends, however, marketers believe that customers
are less willing to part with that information: 39% of respondents believe that customers would be
willing to share personal interests, and 42% think that information on friends would primarily be
shared only in return for discounts and special offers.
Despite the advances in collecting and analysing the data, the greatest challenges in contextual
marketing in the Netherlands are identifying the relevant contexts to target customers and producing
messages that are effective in particular contexts.

Which of the following, if any, do you consider to be the greatest challenges to contextual marketing? Select up to three
(% respondents)

Netherlands

Europe

Identifying relevant contexts in which to target customers
52
46

Hiring creative skills required for contextual marketing
48
45

Producing messages effective in particular contexts
48
50

Hiring technical skills required for contextual marketing
45
46

Encouring customers/prospects to share contextual data
42
50

Respecing customer privacy
30
34

Measuring success of contextual marketing campaigns
24
15

Adapting marketing/campaign processes to contextual marketing
6
9

Other
3
2

For MSD’s Mr Jansen, the biggest challenge with contextual marketing is connecting the dots. “First
of all, it’s a challenge to get the right data. In Europe, databases are not linked, and it’s hard to have a
total view of what is happening.
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© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015

Beyond personalisation: European perspectives on contextual marketing

Dealing as it does with customer information, contextual marketing can present risks. Dutch marketers
are most concerned about collecting incorrect or misleading contextual information about customers
or prospects or damaging the brand by making customers feel uncomfortable.
“There are some fears,” says Mr Bloemendal of Wehkamp.nl. “First, do we have enough relevant, valid
data available in time to set up these kinds of campaigns? And second is looking at privacy—more
people opting out of cookies means that we have less information.”
When it comes to contextual marketing, Dutch marketers are generally in line with their European
counterparts in how they collect data and look for ways to use them better and more efficiently while at
the time meeting the needs of their customers.
Contextual marketing is about understanding a customer’s behaviour at a more granular level than
ever before. Given companies’ ever-growing ability to collect and analyse data, it is arguably the next
logical step after personalisation. And Dutch marketers, like their counterparts in other west European
markets, are beginning to use contextual data to improve the relevance of the messages they share
with customers, thus making their marketing more effective. Whatever they may be calling it just now,
there is no questioning that these data—despite the challenges and risks connected to their use—are
seen as key to providing customers with more value.

© The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015

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