Victoria’s Secret originally personalised to drive brand loyalty and customer value.

as Alex Williams of M&S pointed out to me: “If a customer spends more with you (in a retail context specifically), isn’t this creating value for them?”

“How do we sum this up and understand what the true impact of all of our efforts are?” asked Brunner

Brands expect a return on their investment and they expect it regardless of whether they do the one thing their customers want – personalise – but don’t deliver

But that’s how it is seen, not how it is done. I see a big gap between the two

When done correctly it’s just an experiment targeted to a more specific audience.

most defaulted to those brands that have built a narrative around personalisation as the purpose of their business.

The fact that personalisation means something different for TikTok than for The New York Times is less a question of definition, and more an appreciation that they serve two different purposes.

The varying differences in responses I received to a very simple question – “What is personalisation?” – not only highlighted that the vast majority didn’t know, but that their answers seemed to stem from nothing more than pre-conceptions and bias.