The need for 3rd party enrichment data has never been greater, as multi-national organizations look to standardize their best practices in customer segmentation and targeting globally. However, any organization that embarks on a mission to create these enterprise global currencies will soon discover that finding marketing information necessary for program and campaign execution can be a daunting task. Critical factors such as data types, scale, level of accessible granularity and permissible use of information vary dramatically by country. At Merkle, we support some of the world’s biggest brands to optimize their global sourcing efforts – a process rooted in a deep understanding of local nuances, data-agnostic objectivity and empirical derivation of value – ultimately ensuring that our clients have an advisor to help them navigate the confusing and complex task of sourcing global marketing data.
Merkle’s solution is predicated on the intersection of the following core advantages:
- Reach – There is no single data provider in the world that can meet all of a marketer’s global data sourcing objectives. As such, Merkle partners with multiple data providers around the world to ensure that our clients have access to the broadest array of marketing information available in each market of interest.
- Objectivity – Merkle’s agnostic and scientific approach to data procurement allows us to be objective and leverage any unique strengths of the data suppliers within each market. Merkle is viewed as a data agency and thus the data compilers provide data to Merkle for testing on behalf of our clients. Data compilers view each other as direct competitors but view Merkle as a channel partner.
- Analytically Driven – Merkle’s patent-pending data sourcing framework, the Merkle Content LabTM, is used to empirically determine which data sources are the most predictive and descriptive, adding business value for our clients.
- Advisory Service – Merkle conducts objective assessments of each market – data availability, level of data granularity, addressable population, permissible uses, and data breadth (see figure a).
- Scale/Efficiency – Merkle leverages its buying power and partner network to obtain the most relevant data content for our clients’ global marketing initiatives - including contract management – saving our clients valuable time and money.
Figure a – Example of Marketplace Canvassing
International data sourcing can be an overwhelming task and one that, in our experience, requires a combination of reach, local market understanding, and the ability to be objective in order to meet our clients’ goals. Merkle is not clouded by data ownership, nor are we “just a list broker.” Our objectivity combined with our analytical approach to data sourcing creates a strategic advantage for our clients – specifically, the ability to rapidly and efficiently source and deploy marketing data that aligns business objectives with successful downstream program and campaign execution.
Figure b. International Data Sourcing Framework
