Customer Data Platforms: Striving for a Single View of the Customer

The ability to collect, store and normalize large volumes of data while creating a way to persistently identify profiles across digital touchpoints has been the holy grail for many marketers. Traditionally, Data Management Platforms (DMPs) have been used to fulfill this role, but their reliance on anonymous IDs, the lack of personally identifiable information (PII), and their focus on paid channel optimization has led marketers to look for other alternatives. This is where Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) come into play. Thanks to their usage of known IDs, PII, and their focus on owned channel personalization, they might just provide the coordinated action across all touchpoints and channels that marketers have been seeking all along. But as more and more companies look to brand themselves as CDPs, a little research can go a long way to avoiding potential frustration and going with the wrong option. In this article, you'll learn about the CDP field as it stands today, and how to differentiate CDPs that started on the digital AdTech side from those that started on the PII MarTech side, as well as the differences in both their strengths and weaknesses.

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