In Chapter 2 of Hello $Firstname, Dr Jason Pallant reads ‘What Is the Problem with Personalisation?’

Jason is Director of the Marketing Technology Lab at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He has also used some of the frameworks from Hello $Firstname in the marketing technology curriculum at RMIT.

This chapter explores why personalisation is such a difficult topic to align around. Marketers often use the same word while meaning very different things. UX and website teams may think about dynamic content and recommendations. Media and advertising teams may think about targeting and audiences. CRM and direct marketing teams may think about customer data, triggers, journeys, and owned channels.

The chapter also asks whether personalisation is worth the effort. It covers the operational complexity, the cost of technology and content production, the scepticism from parts of the branding community, and the risk of investing in personalisation without a shared definition.

In his reflection at the end, Jason highlights how different marketing backgrounds shape different interpretations of personalisation. He also points to the importance of shared definitions, especially if marketers want to build credible business cases, case studies, and use cases for personalisation.

The key point is that marketers need a clearer and more common understanding of personalisation before they can expect senior leaders to invest in it properly.

More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe

You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT

If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store.

You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources

You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards