As third-party cookies are set to go the way of the dodo bird, marketers are looking for other options for gathering customer data. At the MarTech Conference held in January, Sharon Kratochvil, Vice President of Global Analytics at Michael Kors, discussed her organization’s strategies for a world without cookies. 

Kratochvil chose to use a customer data platform (CDP). While this option is working for her organization, there are other options available. She was looking for one platform to help them glean the most information from their first-party data and get it to work for them.

Once they obtained the CDP, their strategy was:

• Gather first-party data. With the CDP, they were able to gather, organize and distribute customer data across their various campaigns and journeys. They had the ability to automate digital and CRM campaigns and keep those audiences fresh, using the most recent data. They’ve been able to greatly increase segmentation and personalization.
• Segment customers by channel. Kratochvil’s team used controlled testing to craft their segmentation strategy. During testing, they were able to adjust quickly as needed to optimize CX while also improving revenue streams. They were able to switch channels quickly when a campaign didn’t perform as expected.
• Use first-party data to ID customers. Once they had the first two steps in place, Kratochvil’s team was able to pull together insights to begin customer identification. They implemented server-side cookies that are used to gather much of the data previously gathered by third-party cookies. While retargeting isn’t possible with the first-party cookies, they do allow for identity resolution between the CDP and their CRM. The CRM wasn’t able to process a large amount of unidentified visitors. Identify resolution platforms can help process this backlog of identifications.

What strategy is your organization using to prepare for a future without third-party cookies?