CDPs are dead, brands just haven't noticed | MarTech

"The market pressure was intense, and clients kept asking us to integrate with the platforms they were buying. It was tempting to follow the trend. But after digging into the use cases, the economics and the liabilities associated with storing person-level data, the answer was no. It was not the popular recommendation, but it freed our team to invest in the infrastructure that would actually matter for privacy and efficiency."

"Why did we walk away? A core job of a product owner is understanding whether a problem is growing or shrinking. There is no reason to invest in solving a problem that is already losing relevance. At the time, I believed the obsession with granular customer attributes would not survive the costs and risks facing brands. If anything, that shift became clear to the market faster than expected. Understanding customers is essential. Holding all of their data is not."

"Brands are still buying CDPs because they think identity is a problem they must solve themselves. They want the comfort of feeling all-knowing, but the market refuses to cooperate. Identity is too distributed. Signals shift constantly. Platforms handle person-level precision far better than any brand ever could. Identity feels like an asset, but it behaves like a liability. It's a mistake to fixate on ownership. Define what a critical asset is to own, and let the systems that are built for activation do their job."

A company evaluated building a customer data platform (CDP) and rejected it after assessing use cases, economics, and liabilities of storing person-level data. The decision freed the team to invest in infrastructure that improves privacy and operational efficiency. Product owners should invest where problems are growing; obsession with granular customer attributes faces high costs and risks that reduce its relevance. Understanding customers remains essential, while hoarding person-level data is unnecessary and risky. Brands often buy CDPs to control identity, but identity signals are distributed and volatile, and specialized platforms manage person-level precision more effectively. Ownership of identity behaves like a liability rather than an asset.

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