A consultant is helping a beauty company ingest its profile data into Data Cloud. The company’s source data includes several fields, such as eye…

The most effective and recommended approach is to extend the standard Individual Data Model Object (DMO) by adding custom fields. The Individual DMO is the core object used by Data Cloud's Identity Resolution to create Unified Individual profiles. By adding custom fields like 'eye color' and 'skin type' directly to this standard object, the data becomes natively available for both identity resolution rules (matching and reconciliation) and for direct use in segmentation criteria. This method adheres to best practices by leveraging the out-of-the-box functionality associated with standard DMOs, ensuring seamless integration with core Data Cloud processes without unnecessary complexity.

1. Salesforce Help

Customize Data Model Objects: "You can add custom fields to standard and custom data model objects (DMOs). Add custom fields to a DMO to store data that’s unique to your organization." This documentation explicitly supports the practice of adding custom fields to standard objects like the Individual DMO.

2. Salesforce Help

Identity Resolution Match Rules: "Match rules identify records that likely belong to the same individual. A match rule contains one or more criteria that specify which fields to compare on the Individual object..." This confirms that match rules operate on fields within the Individual DMO

making it necessary to add the custom attributes there to be used for resolution.

3. Salesforce Help

Data Model in Data Cloud: "The Individual object is a standard DMO that represents a person and their attributes. It’s the object on which Identity Resolution runs to create unified profiles." This highlights the central role of the standard Individual DMO

reinforcing why it should be extended rather than replaced or supplemented with a separate DMO for identity-related attributes.