If you’re like me, you worry about making marketing mistakes that might reflect negatively on your company’s brand.

Marketing blunders cause embarrassment and negative PR, but they usually blow-over in time. For example, you might recall when Shutterfly sent a “congratulations on your new arrival” email to people who hadn’t recently given birth. It was a data quality issue that caused backlash from their customer base and a lot of negative press. But, everyone eventually moved on.

In financial services, however, marketing blunders are much more serious. When they are due to data errors or inconsistencies, there can be regulatory issues, fines, and liabilities in addition to bad PR. There’s even the risk of losing your job or your license.

Because financial services marketing is driven by enormous amounts of data, the risk of making a reporting mistake is extremely high. Mistakes caused by a lack of data quality can be a huge blow to a firm, causing them to lose credibility with investors and advisers.  (more…)