(Editor’s note: The following story appeared previously on DestinationCRM.com on October 28, 2014. The full story is available there.)

Customer expectations are higher than ever, and brands that have yet to adopt a more data-driven approach to marketing are playing catch-up, JoAnne Monfradi Dunn, chairman of the Direct Marketing Association, said during her keynote address at DMA 2014 in San Diego in late October.

Dunn also pointed out that marketers are facing a number of other challenges, including unprecedented amounts of data, a marketing environment that’s become more “fear-based than fact-based” due to increased scrutiny, a proliferation of new solutions and technology, and a significant talent gap.

When it comes to the data challenge, Dunn said the DMA has made great efforts to prepare marketers to collect data responsibly and extract meaning from it. In 2013, marketers logged roughly 70,000 hours in professional certification and education through customized learning programs at the DMA, she said. A study conducted with marketing cloud solutions vendor Adobe earlier this year revealed that 81 percent of marketers felt unprepared to tackle the need for better governance, and the DMA has worked “hard to ensure that these marketers aren’t marketing alone,” she said.

Dunn also discussed the importance of self-regulation in the marketing space. “Where there’s trust, self-regulation is possible,” she said. “For the last forty years, the DMA has led the charge in self-regulation...but self-regulation requires business guidelines,” she added. 

To that end, the DMA released a guide about data breach notification at the conference to “help companies better prepare for a data breach situation and learn how to connect with their customers during that time,” she explained.

Though data governance was among the key themes at the conference, leveraging analytics to better understand customers and provide them with more personalized experiences was central to the discussion as well. Former Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson took the DMA stage to share his advice for marketing success.

After a successful NBA career, Johnson was “looking for something meaningful to do with the money [I] had saved up while playing,” he said. Soon, he realized that blacks and Latinos in the United States had roughly $13 trillion in disposable income, and yet “no one was going after that market.” These groups were, for example, avid movie theatergoers, but there were few movie theaters where they lived, according to Johnson. So he worked to open theaters in urban areas and experienced massive returns, he recalled.

Johnson also convinced Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to allow him to open several Starbucks franchises in urban areas. “I’m the only person in North America besides [Schultz] to have owned Starbucks locations,” he said. Eventually, he built 125 Starbucks locations and earned $4.59 per capita in urban America, while Schultz earned only $4.51 in suburban America.

Success followed an understanding of his customers and customizing products and services to their needs and preferences, according to Johnson. “They told me that minorities wouldn’t pay three dollars for a latte. We will, but we don’t quite know what scones are,” he joked. “So I swapped the scones out for pies and pound cake and got rid of the Eagles music and played some Earth, Wind and Fire. I had a lot of success with these.”

After years of targeting minority consumers and training and educating minorities for career opportunities in his companies, Johnson has developed an even deeper understanding of the demographic. “As a result, they trust and follow my brand,” he said. “They have become my brand ambassadors,” he added, and urged marketers to cultivate the same kinds of relationships by choosing the right marketing and data technology.

As marketing becomes more competitive and vendors seek to differentiate themselves by providing the most cutting-edge solutions, real-time analytics will set leaders apart, presenters at the conference agreed. Adobe, for example, introduced a real-time remarketing capability at the event. The solution allows marketers to send personalized messages to customers who have abandoned their carts to bring them back to the Web site and close the sale. —Maria Minsker