First-party data collection is the name of the game these days for many big consumer brands.
And, in most cases, that first-party data comes in the form of an email.
For fashion company Perry Ellis, the development of a strong first-party data strategy has also meant a ground-up rethinking of the company’s email marketing, said Frank Morales, the company’s senior director of ecommerce.
The email address is often the lynchpin between the worlds of ecommerce and online advertising on the one hand and store-based retail on the other.
“Certain ecommerce activities like retention and email marketing do tie into our store distribution,” Morales said. “That all falls into the direct-to-consumer bucket.”
To help connect these worlds, Morales brought on Wunderkind, a performance marketing startup.
Why the email?
One reason the email is so important, Morales said, is that it can be the anchor to which other third-party data can be attached. This is helpful in recognizing site visitors across Perry Ellis’ line of brands like Penguin, Callaway Golf, Rafaella, Cubavera and, of course, Perry Ellis. So even if there is no cookie, the user might be identified and retargeted.
With a portfolio business, cookie-based IDs might recognize return visitors to a particular site, like PerryEllis.com or CallawayApparel.com. With an email, that user is synced across the portfolio.
“It gives us a level of confidence that we can identify this particular user,” Morales said.
And even if the email address isn’t enabling sophisticated personalization or targeting in some instance, it is still useful to know this user is a valid web user and consumer, “not a bot or something like that,” he said.
Why an indie vendor?
Another selling point about Wunderkind is its independence.
Which is to say, it’s not owned by a massive tech or retail conglomerate.
There are walled gardens, for instance, that have very strong internal match rates that connect anonymous web users to an email, Morales said. But even when those campaigns are driving sales, the brand isn’t able collect the email addresses or connect those to online advertising IDs.
The platform might accurately attribute a new sale, but without Perry Ellis gaining useful first-party data. Third-party vendor campaigns, however, generate first-party data for the brand. Which also means the company can follow up directly with that customer on new and relevant offers.
But what happens if Wunderkind is hoovered up by Adobe, Salesforce or the like?
“From my experience, that’s a double-edged sword,” Morales said.
A vendor merging with a major SaaS platform “can go either way,” he said. Sometimes the business gets new funding and support or access to more useful integrations with other big platforms or media companies.
“But on the other side of the coin,” he said, “[the acquirer] can bury the new business within a list of their other acquisitions, not dedicate resources there, and let the product die on the vine.”
