Pragmatic Golden Record inside SFMC
Consolidate identity inside SFMC when the organization lacks a dedicated CRM/MDM layer, while keeping the workaround explicit.
Evidence tier describes my hands-on relationship with the content. Official sources describe platform contracts/documentation. Production observations should not automatically be treated as official limits.
A governed customer record with documented source precedence, consent rules and multi-brand extension points.
Document why SFMC is temporarily carrying identity-resolution responsibility.
Define contact identity and brand overlap rules.
Treat consent as its own governed dimension.
Define identity and grain
Choose what uniquely represents a person/customer in the consolidation layer.
Encode source precedence
Make authoritative-source priority visible and reviewable.
Separate consent from generic field precedence
Do not let a generic “latest wins” rule silently overwrite permission semantics.
Consolidate brand feeds without accidental dedup
UNION ALL preserves source rows before the identity layer chooses winners.
Persist and audit the workaround
Keep the architectural constraint visible so the SFMC model is not mistaken for enterprise MDM.
Turn the Recipe into checkable work.
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