Customer segmentation with Cosmo, Chief Destiny Officer

#2 Customer segmentation and astrology

Do you ever feel like connecting with the right customer audience is just a matter of luck? We’ve met a CDO who leaves audience targeting up to chance. Cosmo, CDO is not a Chief Data Officer — he’s a Chief Destiny Officer. While we focus on data here at Talend, we’re trying to understand the 36% of business executives who say they don’t base the majority of their decisions on data.

If you want to know more about Cosmo and his data-free philosophy, take a moment to catch up on our previous conversation: The role of a CDO. This time, we’re going to try to understand how Cosmo really works by discussing a typical business challenge that many CDOs support their companies with: customer segmentation.

First, let’s revisit your role: Chief Destiny Officer. Can you explain again what that entails?

Of course! I love telling people about my job.

I’m here to help leaders at my company make more intuitive decisions, so that the company’s destiny can unfold as it is meant to.

It’s a complex, delicate, very subtle role that many people, even at my own company, don’t fully appreciate.

Interesting. What can you tell us about marketing at your company?

As our CMO always tells me, the first step of marketing is awareness.

I don’t really listen to the rest of what he says, because I know exactly what he means.

To know your customers, first you must know yourself, and then you must know your universe.

That… actually makes sense. You mean starting with broader competitive research and market research before you dive into audience research, right?

No, I mean tuning into the harmonic pattern of life.

For example, you could take the Marketing team on a weekend retreat under the Aurora Borealis.

Oh. Well, let’s move on. Experts agree that personalization is key to connecting with today’s audiences. How do you balance the current demand for personalization with the need for scalable solutions?

 I mean, I’d love to make individual connections with each of our customers on a spiritual level. If astral projection doesn’t get you Customer 360, what does?

But as you say, that doesn’t scale.

You really need to manifest your audience with the power of positive thinking.

I’ve found other ways to tap into the collective subconscious and divine customer needs.

Are you talking about your Magic 8 Ball?

I’m talking about my Magic 8 Ball.

What do you think of the many SaaS solutions out there?

It’s true, a lot of my coworkers get sassy about my solutions!

I take it as a sign of a closed mind.

No, I mean SaaS as in software as a service. There are lots of audience intelligence tools you can connect to your marketing channels and they’ll tell you, for instance, who’s interacting with your Twitter feed or your Google ads.

Oh, I wouldn’t know anything about that.

I’m very serious about managing my Twitter account personally, and I’d never trust someone else with it.

I see. Because if you cross-reference the data from  —

 Bla bla bla, data is boring. I’m trying to connect with people, not robots.

How well is that working out for you?

Well, you know, it’s a work in progress.

My horoscope indicates that we’ll see results next quarter.

Ah. Thanks for joining us again, Cosmo.

Once again, Talend does not condone Cosmo’s methods.

Customer data is notoriously challenging to work with, and in many cases hard to trust. Many organizations struggle with unhealthy data as they take on Customer 360 initiatives — that is, data that isn’t easily discovered, understood, or acted on.

While you can’t conjure an audience, you can make healthy customer data a reality. By prioritizing data health, you can ensure that everyone across your business has the complete and healthy customer data they need for intelligent audience targeting and effective engagement. Get a prescription for data health with our white paper, Customer 360: Get the data health you and your customers deserve.