What state of mind are you in when you read your favorite news source, check sports scores, or gossip sites? What about when you are in the market for something (could be a car, could be a new recipe for dinner, information on health matters, whatever) or when you just need to connect, to feel like the people, places and opinions that matter most to you are close and accessible? Despite all the digital analytics, it's surmising your state of mind that is the ultimate goal: are you searching car sites because you are in market or because you just …

Whether you're running an inbound call center or generating leads online, the most important first step is knowing the identity of whom you're communicating with. There is no point in overlaying a host of attributes -- purchasing scores, home ownership, credit worthiness, vehicle ownership, purchasing patterns and lifestyle characteristics - unless you know who is on the other end of the line. The keystone is still "identifiers," because attributes are useless without association to a true and current identity.