Stop Treating Us Like Data Points, Say SG Customers
- By CDOTrends editors
- October 17, 2022
Data and privacy is becoming a double-edged sword for brands. On the one hand, consumers are more comfortable than ever sharing personal data with brands, and they expect a more personalized experience in return. On the other hand, they're quick to turn on brands that mishandle their data or fail to provide the promised personalized experience.
New research by Adobe sheds light on how Singaporean consumers feel about data and what they expect from brands for sharing their personal information. With customer expectations higher than ever, it's more important for brands to get personalization right.
The research found that the majority of consumers in Singapore (88%) want to be treated as an individual with unique interests and preferences rather than being lumped into broad, age-based categories such as "Millennial" or "Gen-Z".
65% of Singaporean consumers say they think negatively of brands that interact with them based on broad assumptions like age, compared to 57% in APAC. More than two-thirds of Singaporean consumers want to be contacted only when the information is relevant to their interests at that moment.
This has not always been the case, as 27% of respondents in Singapore said they think brands are not doing a good job or are inconsistent in their efforts to keep up with consumers' preferences. Most Singaporeans (70%) prefer that brands show they care about them by giving thoughtful, personalized gifts or offers rather than making one-off gestures (15%).
Across the region, APAC consumers feel more closely connected to others who share their passions and interests (62%) than those of a similar demographic (19%). Data platform technologies that create a single complete view of every customer are then critical for brands seeking to meet consumers' new expectations, the research said.
"Across Asia Pacific, customers are calling on brands to demonstrate that they know them, show them, and will help them in the moments that matter — not once, but all the time. To meet that standard, brands need to unlock preferences in real-time through customer data and use it to deliver relevant interactions and content at the right moment. Scaling that across up to millions of customers is the next step," said Duncan Egan, vice president of marketing at Adobe Asia Pacific and Japan.
Adobe surveyed 5,000 APAC consumers, including 2,000 Australians, 2,000 Indians, and 1,000 Singaporeans.
Image credit: iStockphoto/bunditinay