This year, Adobe surveyed 6,000 consumers, marketing practitioners and marketing leaders across six countries (US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Japan) on a range of topics from personalisation to social commerce for their ‘Future of Marketing’ research.

A key finding of the research was just how much customers value their own privacy and a brand’s openness.

In the UK, 71% of customers said they would be likely to cease purchasing from a brand that breaks their trust. For those who actually did stop being a customer of a brand in the last year, the main reasons were:

• The brand was being ‘creepy’, such as by tracking or contacting a customer who hadn’t knowingly given permission (49%)
• Sending too many communications, or by lacking clarity over their privacy and data use policies (39%)
• Not listening, particularly in relation to requests to stop sending marketing communications (39%)

While reckless use of a customer’s data can damage trust, the research suggests that responsible data use can actually benefit the relationship between a brand and its customers.

The consumers surveyed said that ‘asking permission to use their data’, being ‘open and transparent’ and giving users ‘control over their data’ are the best ways for a brand to build trust.

Interestingly, younger generations were shown to be the ones would be less tolerant of a breaches of trust and privacy, with 74% of Gen-Z ditching at least one brand in the past 12 months, compared to an overall average of 54%. It is therefore important for brands to cater to the high standards of younger generations, who will inevitably make up a greater and greater proportion of their consumer base as time goes on.

As third-party cookies disappear, marketers must rely more on first-party cookies to create high-quality, personalised experiences for their customers, while using the data as responsibly as possible.

Read more about this fascinating research here.