Although David Raab coined the term customer data platform (CDP) in 2013, companies have been trying to uniquely identify customers and consolidate first-party customer information for multiple decades. Attempts ranged from the customer information files created for banks in the late 1980s, through to the data lakes and master data management systems still in use today.
Despite these efforts (which were developed to support the needs of multiple constituents), marketers still struggled to develop the complete omni-channel view needed to personalize interactions. Digital transformation, while introducing exciting possibilities for meeting customers in their moments, also exacerbated the problem.
