Indian consumers prefer personalised marketing but most are not willing to share their data just for that purpose – they require something more tangible if they are to divulge relevant information, a new study shows.

Epsilon, the data-centred agency, commissioned an online survey of more than 600 people (400 consumers, 200 senior marketing professionals) in order to better understand the use of marketing technologies and consumer expectations of brands.

The resulting study, ‘Marketing In India Is Personal, Not Just Business’, found that 63% of Indian consumers prefer personalised marketing and are inclined to purchase from brands that provide relevant content and offers.

But a similar proportion indicated they are not willing to share personal information with companies to receive more relevant advertising; but more than 90% would give up information for perks and benefits, IndianTelevision.com reported.

India’s marketing community might appear to be behind the curve on this and other important findings. Consumers demand transparency and privacy protection, the study said, but only 15% of marketers regarded preparing for GDPR as a priority.

Another possible disconnect was also evident in the finding that 74% of marketers continue to use SMS to reach consumers, but only 2% of the survey said that they preferred to receive marketing updates through this channel.

The study also revealed that more than three quarters (78%) of these particular consumers expected companies to have a mobile app, and most expressed frustration when a website was not mobile-friendly (68%).

That might give marketers some pointers as to where to direct their investment. As it is, 60% indicated they planned to increase their technology spends, while 71% intended to increase spending on advertising and marketing performance measurement solutions.

“It is a big challenge for marketers to opt for and use the right technology to help them make sense of data and make triable [sic] marketing decisions as fast as possible,” acknowledged Ashish Sinha, Country Head, Epsilon.

But there is an issue in that “the Indian market is unfledged in terms of data and technology readiness, cross-channel expertise, and in bridging organisational silos.”

Sourced from IndianTelevision.com; additional content by WARC staff