data co-op

A data co-op is a group organized for sharing pooled data from online consumers between two or more companies.

Within a data co-op, members offer relevant marketing data gathered from browsing and purchases of online consumers in a jointly accessible data store. In exchange for the data of their own customers, a member gains insight to consumers that they may not have had contact with otherwise. The data might also include information from consumers that have had contact with both companies.

Data co-ops can be useful for companies to see how consumers respond to products and services outside their own range. As first-party data only offers how the consumer responds to the first-party company’s offerings, it can’t give insight into how the consumer might respond to the different offerings of others. The additional insight afforded by understanding consumer response to another company’s marketing and offerings can help a company decide how to market, alter or expand product offerings.

Adobe has positioned itself as a competitor to Google by creating a data co-op. Marketing groups can subscribe to Adobe’s Device Co-op to cross share user data between companies. Adobe claims that Device Co-op makes for better consumer recognition regardless of different computers and devices being used. Their data-co-op also improves accuracy of website engagement metrics and provides personalized, targeted advertising across devices.