# CDP. Customer data platform

> Customer data platform: a system that pulls customer records from the website, the tills, the email tool and the service desk into one profile per person, so that marketing can be targeted at what the customer actually did rather than at everyone on the list.

Source: https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/cdp/

## Terms of Trade · Edition 3: The technology proposal

Definition

Customer data platform: a system that pulls customer records from the website, the tills, the email tool and the service desk into one profile per person, so that marketing can be targeted at what the customer actually did rather than at everyone on the list. Its value is entirely a function of the data put into it and the decisions made from it.

Field note

A CDP is the vault the priceless customer database is locked in, so that the customer in Margate who spent £3 in 2014 and opened one email in 2019 is never, ever left off a mailing list.

Board question

How many customers on the database have bought in the last twenty-four months, and what share of the marketing budget is spent talking to the rest?

Applied through

[Customer Truth](https://barkingcat.ai/the-cats-whiskers/customer-truth/) in the Cat’s Whiskers, a current understanding of who is being served; the Data foundation of [the AI Diagnostic](https://barkingcat.ai/the-barking-cat-ai-diagnostic/), which the personalisation promise is standing on.

Related terms
- [Single customer view](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/single-customer-view/)
- [Personalisation](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/personalisation/)
- [LTV](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/ltv/)
- [Attribution](https://barkingcat.ai/terms-of-trade/attribution/)

## Contact

steve@barkingcat.ai

Barking Cat Advisory Limited. Registered in England and Wales, company number 17338003.