Automation for Consumer Products: Powering the Magic of Personalization

Even as global consumer products (CP) giants pour billions into retail media ad spending, vying for consumer attention, marketers face an ongoing struggle to convert that investment into lasting, sustainable customer loyalty.  

Our new Global Consumer Products Engagement Report revealed a growing disconnect between marketers and consumers: consumers don’t want more ads — they want more meaningful and relevant experiences.  

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Consumer Goods Forum Global Summit in Amsterdam, and the event highlighted how CP marketers are looking to transform their engagement strategies. In this article, I’ll share my top takeaways from the event and how automating personalized, omnichannel engagement can help drive true loyalty.  

The Consumers Goods Forum Global Summit is exclusive to C-level executives. It creates a space where brand leaders can gather to voice key issues, solve challenges, and influence the future of their respective industries. Here’s what stood out to me about this year’s summit: 

1. Consumers aren’t just becoming less loyal to brands — they’re ignoring them entirely. We found that 63% of Gen Z consumers don’t care about “brands.” This is a frightening wake-up call for brands in this Engagement Era, where brands rise and fall based on their ability to deliver seamless, personalized interactions. It’s no wonder 88% of leading brands are transitioning to SAP S/4HANA  (Bain & Company), so they can establish their data foundation and better connect to every touchpoint in the customer lifecycle. 
   
2. As we increase efficiency with AI, brands cannot forget the importance of human experiences. We found that only 10% of consumers want more AI-led brand interactions, because to consumers, the method you use to execute campaigns isn’t the point. What consumers care about is whether your message aligns with who they are and what they need at the moment they need it most. 
   
3. Connecting operational and customer data is a daunting task. When a business focuses too much on middleware solutions to connect siloed systems, they create a bottleneck rather than a solution, making it even more difficult to adapt to the real-time demands of modern businesses.  

CP brands need the ability to connect the customer lifecycle from end to end and deliver the kinds of personalized experiences that foster long-lasting loyalty.   

Although retail media is an essential channel for consumer goods, marketers need a complete omnichannel strategy for the entire customer lifecycle if they want to close the personalization gap, the divide between a brand’s ability to deliver relevant engagement and what consumers expect. 

Advertising alone doesn’t easily translate into conversions and valuable connections.  The Global Consumer Products Engagement Report found that 69% of CP marketers say it’s becoming harder to engage meaningfully with customers. Brands need new ways to connect with their customers more effectively.    

Turn your data into your advantage

The starting point for connecting with customers should be data. Deep customer insights can help brands maximize their retail media investments with more precise ad targeting. They can then use automation and AI to extend these interactions and power personalized engagements across other channels.   

We found that just 32% of all CP marketers say they have an established, connected data strategy. The rest are falling behind, struggling to integrate data sources, gain insights, and turn data into meaningful customer connections.  

But collecting this data — from insights on demographics to channel preferences to spending habits to purchase history — is a big ask.  The majority of CP brands don’t have a direct relationship with customers.  

SAP Emarsys helps brands turn every digital interaction into a meaningful data exchange, building trusted, first-party relationships through channels like email, web, and social media. By activating data across marketing, commerce, and sales and automating campaigns (such as welcome, re-engagement, loyalty, and more), businesses have the basis on which to create seamless customer journeys that build loyalty.   

Maximize ROI by supercharging your media strategy

A retail media strategy is still incredibly important for digital and in-store activations. However, with the mounting pressure on brands to compete for consumer brand loyalty, they need to be smarter in their approach.  

Businesses like Criteo can help with this. Integrating Criteo with SAP Emarsys enables consumer products brands to supercharge their retail media strategies by combining powerful ad tech with rich customer data. Brands can turn first-party data insights collected from interactions into personalized, high-impact campaigns on Criteo’s network across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.  

The result? Increased relevance, greater engagement, and more loyal customers. 

Converting casual shoppers to loyal customers 

Marketers must pivot from seeking short-term clicks and single transactions to building strong customer relationships. This shift means embracing new strategies to meet customer expectations, moving from transactional marketing to building long-term engagement.   

Personalization should deliver real-time, AI-driven and context-aware experiences to individuals on whatever channel a customer prefers to be. It requires consistent, relevant marketing interactions that build trust and loyalty over time.   

The best personalization should feel invisible. People love it when a brand just “gets them,” but they don’t want to feel like they’re in a chatbot loop. Brands like John Frieda and Versuni (formerly Philips Domestic Appliances) are showing how to do it right, using AI to scale relevance behind the scenes while keeping the experience human. 

The pressure on CP marketers is only increasing, especially when you consider that spending on grocery store private labels is expected to rise to 24% by 2030 (eMarketer). And according to the Global Consumer Products Engagement Report, 60% of consumers have switched to private label alternatives because they’re more affordable. 

It would be downright dangerous for marketers in this day and age to assume that customer loyalty will be automatic… instead, what marketers must do is automate personalized engagement to drive customer loyalty. 

Understanding automation for consumer products  

Automation can be used throughout the customer lifecycle to move consumers through the funnel with targeted messaging, speeding up the time to purchase and increasing satisfaction. Emarsys offers industry-proven pre-built tactics that help CP marketers quickly create automated campaigns throughout the customer journey. Marketers can use these tactics out-of-the-box or with easy customizations using our drag-and-drop interface. 

This video from Principal Solution Consultant Nick Odom dives into how you can customize a re-targeting campaign based on consumer behavior across channels.  

Using Emarsys’ flexible pre-built tactics (such as Welcome, Product Registration, Referral Offer, and many more), you can rapidly spin up new campaigns. When there are changes in the market or consumer behavior or even your supply chain, it’s critical to be agile and ready to adapt.  

Re-engaging inactive contacts  

One especially powerful omnichannel automation tactic is re-engagement, particularly when you have a formerly engaged contact who has gone inactive, or, if you have a loyalty program, an inactive loyalty member. Such customers have already shown strong interest in your brand, so if you can re-engage them with personalized experiences, that’s a huge win that can lead to lasting value (for both you and the customer).  

You’ll want to use targeted messages that drive action and build greater loyalty. Channels to use here include email, mobile in-app, and mobile push.  

Include these steps in your automated engagement sequence: 

1. Every month, trigger an email to a segment of members with no activity in the last 30 days. 
2. Use personalization tokens to personalize the incentive email. You can also add AI-powered product recommendations to your emails.
3. Follow up with a reminder email to the same audience segment 12 days later. 

This strategy comes straight from our Personalization Playbook — you can download it to find more engagement strategies for the entire customer lifecycle.  

Automation with style: How Wella Company enhances omnichannel engagement  

Wella Company, a global brand with 140+ years’ experience in the beauty industry, is committed to inspiring their consumers. The company engages with diverse markets, including marketplaces, freelance stylists, and even direct consumers. To reach such a wide array of contacts with personalized, omnichannel campaigns, Wella Company relies on SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Emarsys. With a few clicks, marketers can create target segments and deliver automated campaigns.  

Watch the Wella Company omnichannel journey video for more stylin’ automation inspiration! 

To effectively bridge the personalization gap, CP brands need to adopt data-driven strategies and automation. The true goal behind this strategy is to foster deeper customer connections throughout their entire lifecycle. Be sure you’re ready to:  

• Connect data across your business and start building long-term relationships rather than transactional interactions. 
• Deliver personalized, omnichannel experiences that are meaningful and timely to your customers. 
• Use automation and AI tools to streamline and scale engagement.

To learn more about how to accomplish this and get even more great use cases, check out our Product Hub.