Reliability of data vs. brand reputation

Marisa Travaglin, Head of Marketing at Trend Micro in Brazil

The digital transformation is here to stay and is impacting all the individual's behavior in the 21st century when purchasing products and services. With each passing day, we suffer an avalanche of information, available data and polarization of opinions, leading organizations and, mainly, marketers to monitor the evolution of this perception to confidently conduct the organizational development of their company.

In order to analyze the perception of a brand, it is necessary to have access to various opinions from different groups, who have a minimally clear view of this organization, as opinions will be built, positive for some and negative for others, depending on the interpretation. The point of attention here will be to analyze the quality of the information received and the credibility of the issuer / organization, as these factors will be critical in forming the public's impressions.
As a marketing executive within a company that has been preparing from the beginning to deal with the new landscape of data responsibility, I understand that the development of a marketing and communication strategy will have a huge impact on the reputation of the brand that, according to studies, is one of the main factors that weigh in the decision of executives when choosing a company to work for. This finding reflects the relevance of this issue not only in increasing sales and elements but also marketshare and share of mind, but also in building a solid and well qualified team to deal with the current challenges in the corporate world.
In this Digital Age, working with reliable data is a major challenge that becomes part of the new routine of marketers. Accompanying this new reality, there is the need to deal with new technologies / software that analyze the individual's behavior and engagement (which allows to see ways to customize the service and make the user experience as striking and special as possible), as well as the obligation to deal with a new data responsibility paradigm.

One could not speak of "Digital Age" without looking at a subject that will also impact the routine of Marketing when we manipulate data; it's about LGPD - General Data Protection Law - which will come into force in February 2020, aiming to ensure the online security of user data. Inspired by the GDPR (European law that has been in force since May this year, with a very similar character), this new rule should have significant impacts on all segments of activity that collect and manipulate data from third parties, which includes marketing.

In general, I understand that the LGPD must have three main impacts:
 

In this regard, people will have the right to remove outdated or inaccurate personal information, so users can gain more control over how their data is collected and used - including the ability to access or remove it -, reinforcing their right to forgotten - therefore removed from companies' databases. Therefore, from now on, it will be the responsibility of marketers to ensure that their users can easily access their data and remove consent from its use, with direct impacts on some of the main aspects of digital marketing and on the analysis of target audience profiles.

2. Database enrichment and user sharing
Currently, in the emails we manage, we use opt-ins as the only way to ask for data permission, assuming that they want to receive more information from the company's portfolio, as well as from its partners. With the new law in force, in addition to asking for permission to send more materials, we will have to ask users for their permission to be contacted in the future for new products or to share and enrich databases with partner services.

3. Focus on transparency data usage
We will have to request data that organizations really need and justify the end user if they need other information, as the law will require the company to legally explain how to process the collected personal data. In practice, this will translate into a much more detailed and conscious and therefore more complex campaign planning need.

In view of this new reality, it is not difficult to conclude that the new branding strategies must go far beyond traditional design and naming practices, and must include a strong appeal to the company's responsibility in relation to its practices in all channels and media used: website , blog, social media and also positioning itself in market events or even in the production of internal events that aim to strengthen relationships. Even the content produced, a fundamental part of Inbound Marketing, needs to be idealized in order to reflect the voice and values of the company, strengthening the identification with its customers.

After the branding strategy has been built, analyze how the market and its customer base react to your efforts, checking elements such as awareness, loyalty, identity, value and perception, so that you can work on new plans. Naturally, the responsibility for the data collected applies to this step as well, so I reinforce the need to have a very clear and well established procedure for collecting and processing information, so that the company is not harmed when executing its market strategy.

As we can see, treating the reliability of the collected data will set the tone for making the image management of a brand more assertive, an essential factor for it to have a positive impact on the market and, with that, be remembered when making decision of purchase or when hiring new professionals and forming a competitive team ready to deal with an increasingly challenging scenario.

Disclaimer: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies