Custom Fields with Marketing Attribute Business Context in the SAP Marketing Cloud 1811

[valentinamed]

Hi Experts,

Does somebody know what is the difference between custom filed with business context Marketing: Marketing Attributes for Contacts and Marketing Attributes/Categories imported using OData service.

As I can see, only OData imported attributes are visible in segmentation, but I can't see any purpose of custom fields with the context of marketing attribute.

Where I can use that kind of custom fields and how to add value to it?

[former_member247020]

Hi,

When to use what depends on how you are planning to use the field on SAP Marketing Cloud. Generally, we are talking about Marketing Attributes (only on Contact objects), Custom Fields and Custom Business Objects.

Regarding your question:
Marketing Attributes on SAP Marketing Cloud do not require customization activities but have restricted use. e.g. they must be imported via the OData API, they are available in the documentation but nut in export definitions or for email personalization. Marketing Attributes is always a character string, only available on the contact object.
Examples are: Hobbies (travel, reading, swimming) or Spoken Languages (English, Spanish, German)

Custom fields are a extension of the existing data model. You can define the data type, field length, different business context etc.. custom field can be assigned to specific business ciontext (e.g. contact, product, interaction, ...) and are considered as field extension of the existing data model.
Examples are: IsLoyaltyMember(boolean), customerScore(number), NoteFromSalesRep(Char)

Then you have Custom Business Objects where you can extend SAP Marketing Cloud with a custom table.You can define custom columns and generate a customized OData Service for the CBO to load data.
Example: CBO to hold Service contacts data

• Custom fields
• Custom Business Object
• Marketing AttributesI hope this helps.

br,

Johannes

[valentinamed]

Hi Johannes,

Many thanks for a comprehensive and precise answer! Now it's completely clear about marketing attributes.

All the best,

Valentina Medos

[hakan_kose · Accepted solution]

Hi valentinamed

Marketing attributes have two basic information: Marketing attribute category and their marketing attribute values (they can be multiple)

Speaking for your given example, it seems that you have "Hobby" as Marketing Attribute Category and "Reading" and "Running" as Marketing Attribute Values

For the sake of sticking to your example, with a custom field named "Hobby type" for instance, you can add "context" to your marketing attributes. With this way, you can drill down the hobbies of your contacts by "Indoor hobbies" and "Outdoor hobbies".

So if you create a custom field with type code list having only two entries "I - Indoor" and "O - Outdoor", your typical imported data would be like:

Marketing Attribute Category / Hobby type (Custom Field) / Marketing Attribute Values

Hobby / I (Indoor) / Reading, Cooking

Hobby / O (Outdoor) / Skating, Running

I hope this helps

Kind Regards,

Hakan Köse

[valentinamed · Accepted solution]

Hi Hakan,

Yes, that was the answer that I have been searching for. Thank you for example and clarification of it.

Best regards,

Valentina Medos

[KunalBansal]

Dear Valentina,

Could you add a comparative screenshot to explain the scenario?

Best Regards,
Kunal Bansal
SAP Marketing Cloud, Consultant

[valentinamed]

Hi Thedor,

I'm not sure if I understood you right, for 'standard' you concern marketing attributes imported via OData, not custom fields?

Using OData (API_MKT_CONTACT) for creating marketing attribute you should provide a marketing category name as well, which means that importing marketing attributes in this way you will create a marketing category.

Best Regards,

Valentina

[former_member267312]

Hi Valentina,

Which OData service did you use for your 2nd screenshot and what did your payload look like? I guess your marketing attribute category is "hobby" and the attributes are "reading" and "running". The way you loaded the data seems fine to me.

BR

Theo

[valentinamed]

Hello Kunal,

Thank you for the interest in this topic.

Picture 1: This is a screenshot from Custom Fileds and Logic tile, you can see Hobby as custom made field with business context: Marketing: Marketing Attributes for Contacts. My question is how to assign this field to specific contact as marketing attribute with a proper value. For example, I want to John Doe to have Hobby: Reading, Running? Is that possible in this way?

In the next picture, I succeed to set marketing attributes not using above scenario but OData service instead.

Is somehow possible to achieve the same with custom filed from picture 1? If is not, what is a purpose of that kind filed with that kind of business contex?

[former_member267312]

Hi Valentina,

With the Custom Fields & Logic app you can extend the data model for marketing attributes. For your scenario it should however be sufficient to just use the standard and assign the marketing attributes via OData (API_MKT_CONTACT). If you want to create Marketing Attribute Categories please use the following API: API_MKT_ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY

BR

Theo