Despite personalization being seen as an essential differentiator in consumer engagement, just 44% of UK consumer product marketers believe their campaigns and content are effectively personalized.
That’s according to the new Consumer Products Engagement report from SAP Emarsys, launched during the SAP Emarsys Personalization Masterclass which also reveals that UK consumers feel the same way: only 44% feel they receive personalized experiences when browsing or buying consumer products — despite 61% saying they highly value this content when choosing what to buy.
The report introduces the Customer Engagement Maturity (CEM) score: an indicative rating of how ready a brand is to maximise the potential of its customer engagement strategy and empower marketers to meet their business goals. It provides advice on everything from channel composition to personalization techniques, highlighting what SAP Emarsys calls the ‘Engagement Era’ between consumers and marketers.
The insight also outlines the risks of falling behind. “There’s a clear gap between what consumers expect and what marketers feel able to deliver,” said Sara Richter, CMO at SAP Emarsys. “Brands like Krispy Kreme that close this gap by embracing the ‘Engagement Era’ and scaling personalization effectively will be the ones that earn true customer loyalty.”
The research also highlights the urgent need for this personalization to happen across multiple channels as part of an omnichannel strategy to effectively reach consumers. Email remains the dominant channel (44%) for consumer product engagement. But live chat (16%), social media (13%) and SMS (13%) are also growing in importance — especially for younger audiences. For brands to succeed, personalisation powered by AI must happen across channels, in real time.
Yet many marketers are still struggling with the basics. While 86% agree that personalization will be a key differentiator in 2025, only 28% of those from brands with low CEM scores say they can effectively use customer data — compared to 56% in high-maturity brands.
Fortunately, SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement stands out from the competition, differentiating SAP CX as the defining CX solution in the market. Being able to take advantage of interconnected, insightful, adaptive technology solutions places the customer firmly at the center of a brand’s engagement strategy, driving both loyalty and profitability.
Krispy Kreme is an outstanding example of personalization done right. By partnering with SAP Emarsys to leverage predictive AI across customer touchpoints, the brand achieved a 53% increase in leads and significantly improved engagement across channels.
As Vaibhav Suri, eCommerce marketing executive at Krispy Kreme, explains: “It’s really easy to understand. The amount of data that we’re able to extract from SAP Emarsys, and the data dashboards as well, are super helpful for us to then analyze and implement new journeys or really optimize our current ones. So overall, it’s been a great experience using SAP Emarsys, as I believe it’s a super simple but, super effective platform as well.”
SAP Emarsys positions its platform as a key driver of success in the ‘Engagement Era’ — where real-time, AI-driven personalization across every touchpoint is now essential to empower consumer product brands to meet their business goals.
The full UK Consumer Products Engagement Report is available here
