Privacy and fear. The two are intertwined. Yes, there are real fears related to online privacy–identity theft, credit card theft, stalking, even murder; but marketing? Come on. Marketing is not life or death, folks. It shouldn’t even drive anxiety. It’s simply a means to get you to buy a car, cleaning product, shoes, faucet, bank account, etc.
The US and much of Europe are capitalist societies that have been built and grown based on business success. Companies are going to keep trying as hard as they can to sell their product, but they would much rather try to sell it to a qualified over unqualified consumer. We all get frustrated being so bombarded by advertising in our capitalist markets, but there is no reason to fear being sold window cleaner or basketball shoes. Let’s face it, you are going to buy this stuff anyway. That’s what humans who have jobs and money do. We all try to live our lives more easily and more pleasurably, and companies that develop and sell products help us do that.
Yet “privacy” is being used as a blanket issue and marketing is the scapegoat because it’s far easier to attack than the big unsolvable issues like identity theft or stalking. Take this point from MSNBC writer Bob Sullivan:
“Internet privacy is a murky, complicated issue full of conflicting interests, misinformation, innuendo and technology snafus… Advertising firms, who stand to gain as much as any from personal data collection, have absorbed the brunt of complaints from privacy critics.”
Screaming at marketers about privacy helps people think they are “doing something about it,” when in reality they are just screaming to make themselves feel better.
The real risk of lumping general marketing analytics and observation of anonymous consumer behaviors into the “fear of privacy” bucket is that the consumer is the one who will lose the most. Data collection of anonymous consumer behavior should not make someone feel threatened. What is done with that data? We IMPROVE your experience with that marketing initiative. Marketers are working to use your behavior and preferences to better target their advertising and give you an easier time accomplishing your online tasks.
-We fix crappy check-out carts
-We add helpful content to a site
– We make tools function better
-We add entertainment and social sharing opportunities
-We help you get to the info you need
-And so much more
Now what about Neuromarketing? Talk about making people afraid. Most people aren’t comfortable spending time in their own brain, let alone someone looking into their brain and how it responds to images and messaging. Neuromarketing goes a step further than traditional analytics by allowing us to make consumers feel a certain way to improve their experience with that brand and product. That may sound even creepier, but in the end, it all comes back to providing consumers the experiences that they will relate to the most, engage with the most, and help form brand affinity. The intent is not to brainwash you into buying what you don’t need, but rather to influence you to buy one brand over another.
In short, web analytics is for good, not evil. We don’t care about your credit card number, your name or your address, and we certainly aren’t stalking you. We just want to help you buy those hot shoes you already wanted. In the end, using consumer data helps companies waste fewer dollars advertising to unqualified consumers and YOU may even appreciate that you start receiving coupons for the brands you prefer and don’t get lost in another car configurator.
Help us all out….
Marketers: work together by spreading the word that marketing usage of consumer data isn’t something to be feared.
Consumers: get educated about how large of a topic privacy is and steer away from sweeping assumptions you hear from the news or friends. Privacy is absolutely a scary topic and there is every reason for you to be careful but in the wise words of FDR, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”
It seems like there’s a lot to say here and surely lots of opinion. Feel free to share in the comments below. We’ll work on turning this into a series…. Next up, more on Neuromarketing and Capitalism.
