VPI is a disruptive innovation with the potential to transform relationships between individuals and organisations – including marketing.

VPI is information that traditional data gathering techniques cannot reach (or often cannot reach at the right time). It spans many things such as:

• My changing personal details/demographics
• My changing circumstances
• My interests
• My product, service and other preferences
• My plans and intentions

Organisations receiving VPI will be able to reduce marketing costs and improve operational and marketing effectiveness (right value and right information for the right person at the right time and right place), identify new product and service opportunities sooner, improve database accuracy, reduce risk, and generally build better, closer relationships with customers.

But VPI will only flourish in an environment which enables and encourages personal (not corporate) empowerment. Most VPI will be generated as a by-product of individuals using Personal Information Management Services to manage their lives better. It will only be released by individuals if certain conditions are met: for example, if the information is not sold on to third parties behind their backs, used to invade their privacy or to spam them.

More positively, VPI requires a new infrastructure and a new information ‘social contract’ including:

•  respect for the individual (as distinct from statistically derived ‘targeting’)
• a recognition of personal data as a personal, not corporate, asset
• empowerment, giving individuals control over what data is gathered and shared, how, and who it is shared with
• direct and immediate benefits for participating in information sharing activities
• transparency about both benefits and processes.

 Resources

• For more on the implications of VPI and its sister concept of Vendor Relationship Management see this recent article for the Institute of Direct Marketing’s Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice.
•  For an overview of different forms of VPI and their role in evolving markets see From Choice to Voice.
•  For related material on personal data management see Personal Knowledge Banks.
•  For information about the seminar ‘CRM meet VRM’ on September 25 contact me.
•  To join a group of companies exploring the potential of VPI see The Explorers Club.