Is CDP Confusion Making You Miss Your Best Options for Data Security, Integration, and Scalability?

If you’re like most enterprise CTOs, CMOs, marketing directors, and digital technology experts, you like to make decisions based on solid fundamentals, proven performance, and reliable customer data. Plus, you’re probably feeling the urgent need to understand exactly how your customers’ needs and preferences are changing in response both to COVID-19 and the ongoing digital transformation of society. If so, you might be interested in the findings of a recent survey of savvy marketers and other experts: Many decision makers are least aware of the very best choices available to them when it comes to one of the hottest emerging martech categories.

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Which CDP Is First in Scalability, Ease-of-Use, Integration, and Data Security?

A recent survey of knowledgeable CDP customers and buyers from Advertiser Perceptions shows that at least in the customer data platform (CDP) arena, the top-rated CDPs are the independents—or “indies” as Advertiser Perceptions calls them—and are also the CDPs with the least name recognition.

In contrast, some big software companies that only recently entered the CDP arena topped the charts on awareness with those surveyed, which included 231 marketers, data scientists and IT professionals at large companies who have either used a CDP, were involved in the selection process, or plan to start using one within the year.

But despite the knowledgeable group of respondents polled, many of the more recognizable names didn’t even make it into the top three for either best CDP data security or best CDP scalability, two of the most important categories for judging a CDP’s performance. The most extreme example on the Advertiser Perceptions list is clearly Treasure Data enterprise CDP. It’s first in both scalability and data security—as well as ease of use and data integration—but low on reported awareness.

Why So Much CDP Confusion? 

Some observers think that the confusion new CDP offerings have created has convinced some marketers that well known companies are ready to perform the work that CDPs actually do.

But a glance at the top finishers in many of the categories shows there’s a big gulf between knowledgeable, experienced buyers’ perceptions of a fully developed CDP, capable of managing the full breadth of an organization’s data needs, and a repurposed, specialized database or CRM.

Why Treasure Data Offers the Best Scalability, Data Security

It’s no wonder there’s a significant lack of awareness about some of the technologically advanced features pure-play CDPs deliver. And since a customer data platform is at the center of all functions performed by the martech stack, pure-play CDPs like Treasure Data are agnostic in the APIs they provide, making it easy to use the best technology for your company’s needs.

There’s a reason why Treasure Data has earned awards like ClickZ’s Best CDP Mar Tech award and top scalability and data security rankings on Advertising Perceptions survey (see also “Treasure Data CDP Forrester Wave Strong Performer for Customer Analytics”). And there are good technical and business reasons why international giants such as Subaru, Wish.com, Shiseido and many others have chosen the Treasure Data CDP.

For example, Treasure Data’s approach is scalable in ways that make on-the-fly analytics and data discovery easy to use for real-time targeting. For example, Japanese mall chain operator PARCO can entice a particular consumer to visit a store that she’s approaching, or offer real-time games that track a shopper as he plays a scavenger hunt through different stores in a mall.

The data from each consumer’s behavior is then added to what’s already known, so it can be used to target new offers or look for consumers that will respond to similar products or services. The volume and types of data become almost irrelevant with the extensive data integration, which can happen on the fly as each customer interacts with technology and with the offline world.

Beyond Scalability—to Flexibility and Efficiency

But beyond the operational scalability—and Treasure Data regularly handles many billions of transactions daily—the data lake approach means that changes are easy to make. Unlike many data warehouse approaches, you don’t have to reconstruct a database or redo schema just to make changes to the data you collect.

One of Treasure Data’s automotive customers captures data from a device that tracks driving behavior. The data can then be shared with the many auto insurance companies that offer good-driver discounts when behavior can be verified. That is 20 billion transactions a day for just one company! Plus, the Treasure Data CDP is very cost-effective in automating the data unification that’s required to power an application like this.

And when AI and machine learning combine with that kind of scalability, the ease of discovering key insights about customers—and piecing together their identities from large, diverse data streams—becomes invaluable. Because once you can do that at scale, your insights can quite literally stop customer churn in its tracks, and we all know that it’s usually easier to keep existing customers than look for new customers.

Ending the Confusion: Treasure Data’s Best-Kept Secret Is Also the Best CDP Choice

Having so many recent entrants into the CDP realm has clearly created a lot of uncertainty about what each business needs in a CDP. To sort it all out, it’s usually best to rely on previous experience, plus reports of users, consultants, and analysts. In addition to the Advertiser Perceptions survey and the Best CDP award already mentioned, Frost & Sullivan recently named Treasure Data the CDP Company of the Year. Most recently, Treasure Data CDP with Treasure Boxes won a Best Marketing Solution CODiE from SIIA for its ability to easily unify customer data and orchestrate campaigns, due to its integration with other martech solutions.

Expert opinions seem to be converging, and it’s becoming clear that for many, the best CDP choice is the industry’s best-kept secret. Could it become yours?

To gain valuable insights into the CDP market, download your copy of the Advertiser Perceptions report, “CDP Benefits, Challenges and Usage.”