Zero-Party Data: The Future of Retail

Twenty-five years ago, our team built an early prototype of a sales enablement platform with Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems. We envisioned the future workplace in 2000, which turned out to be the COVID workplace of 2020. Where workforces were disparate, knowledge transfer and training happened at a distance, and KPIs were met with little face-to-face supervision. We built a model for teams to work together while apart, unifying around a global value proposition. Of course, technology is a three-tier system. This meant extending the model to telcos, SIs, and consultants.

Our location in Northern California gave us access to the Napa and Sonoma wine regions. Diageo Chateau and Estate Wines became our first clients. Within months, sales enablement exploded across the organization. Soon, we were running trade communication for Diageo’s wine, spirit, and beer divisions. Over time, we expanded into hospitality and concierge across tasting rooms, cellar parties, travel and events, and hotel and resort partnerships. In 2005, after the Granholm v. Heald decision, we took over developing the wine club and e-commerce offerings. For the next twenty years, our team helped hundreds of wine brands triangulate 3-tier on/off-premise distribution, online digital marketing and ecommerce, and in-person hospitality and concierge services.

In-person versus online data

We were fortunate and privileged to experience the industry across all revenue functions (excluding grape sales). This vantage point provided access to all kinds of data sets from touchpoints and stakeholders. Over time, it became clear that the data from digital marketing campaigns fundamentally differed from those in the tasting rooms, cave parties, and club memberships. Online data was functional but offered little customer-centric insights. In-person data was richly customer-centric while also inclusive of all the functional insights.

We learned that understanding the customer’s interests, occasions, likes and dislikes, lifestyle, frequencies, varietals, and how wine fits into their lives was vastly more indicative of their propensity to purchase and stay than the transactional and conversion data from GA, CRM, and POS. Even as ESP, CDP, and SSOT enhanced what CRM could capture and activate, we could not extract the same level of intelligence, sentiment, or value from the digital data. It was impersonal, distant, automated, and robotic. Conversely, as attributes like trust, empathy, care, and anticipation seeped into live conversations, the Zero Party proved more valuable than gold.

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Next-generation zero-party data

Harnessing "zero-party human intelligence" was the genesis of Umego. It lives at the intersection of three capabilities (our own Gordian Knot). First, with the introduction of AI-powered LLMs, trained using our unique behavioral and social science inputs, we unlock unlimited opportunities to appreciate, understand, and respect customers. Second, in developing our customer connection platform, we can now nurture relationships at a distance that feels personal and face-to-face. Finally, none of it works without human connection. Our sales enablement pedigree helps to transform sales organizations into a concierge, hospitality, and personal shopper direct selling model. What started at Sun Microsystems over twenty years ago as a way for people to work far apart has come full circle and is now being used to bring people back together. That’s the power of zero-party intelligence.

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