Privacy. One of the hot topics and burning issues of our time. Bloggers blog on it; conferences conference on it; reporters report on it; governments want to govern on it and…you get the picture.
Truth is it’s a big topic and complex and not new. Ever since it became possible to retain data, it has been a hotly debated and no doubt goes back to ancient Egypt, China and Babylonia where records were used to keep track of the population.
In modern times, credit cards and ease of transaction have compounded the issue and every time there is a “data spill” another red flag gets raised. In fact giving credit card info is one of the biggest barriers to remote (catalog and Internet) purchase although we seem to have no trouble giving it to waiters in restaurants…go figure.
More truth. We have made it worse. We pontificate on our deep knowledge of the consumer – “we know everything” – (I’ve written on this before.) And, if we did really know everything and could really make use of all of that then people would buy whatever we wanted them to buy and the company that actually knew the most would be the only company left selling as consumers clamored to spend their money…RIGHT.
I recently bought an Amazon Kindle – will review in the next couple of weeks – when I turned it on I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was immediately pre-registered, linked to my one-click shopping account and that my Amazon account would mirror the Kindle and that my orders from the Kindle were one click to download. WOW!!!!
After the WOW, I wondered if my privacy had been violated. Did I want them to pre-register; pre-populate connect and activate without my specific permission every step of the way? After a nano-seconds hesitation – damn right I did!!!
So here is the insight: we all love being recognized as previous shoppers/eaters/whatever when we go into stores and restaurants. We like it when the person behind the Starbucks counter remembers that we like our latte “wet and skinny with a quad” and we like one-click shopping on Amazon.
It occurred to me that we all want to be celebrities and that Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/15_minutes_of_fame) or today’s 15mgs of fame is an aspiration that is fairly universal.
So we all want privacy – that is until we really want to remembered and recognized and therein lies the lesson for our business and the programs that we develop. Listen closely:
A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.
~Fred Allen
And there you have it – to paraphrase Shakespeare – we protest too much….. (The lady doth protest too much, methinks. Hamlet Act 3, scene 2, 222–230)
Sure I don’t want my intimates shared with strangers but nothing beats a personal hello…
More on other privacy later – like Facebook – do I have the right to demand privacy after I let it all hang out?
Apparently nobody wants to comment on Celebs or privacy. Privacy for celebs is a lot different from customer privacy. I’ll ignore the celeb side too.
For customers or prospects, our intended use of their information is about customising an offer, or targeting within a population more appropriately. We marketers are producing “mini-pictures” of customers to make this work better – ideally for the clients and the customers. The “mini-picture” could come from research or analysis of databases, or even both at once.
Problem is that the “mini-pictures” may be wrong or distorted, leading to missing good prospects or hitting on bad ones. Other problems are that some cohorts choose to remain private, unknowable, or uncontactable, or that clients want to push the limits of a working relationship and over-reach.
Deep down, we’re using technology to do what good local store owners and good waiters have done for centuries – personalised interaction. For a consumer, “opting out” has a serious downside of not getting good offers, and having to do your own research. “Opting in” has a downside of getting hit on when they want to be left alone.
Sleazy operators should (and do) get whacked at every opportunity. This works in different ways in traditional markets. Consumer backlash, fines, weak campaigns, etc. [But PT Barnum was right, too, as was Churchill].
Observation: the economics of being ethical in marketing works most of the time. It doesn’t stop some unethical exploitation of customer information, but most clients put a lot of effort into avoiding it.
Tom (rose coloured glasses???).
and here I was hoping that Britney would win the day for me — Oh well….to yoru point good store owners never spammed — at least not teh succesful ones. They remembered that you liked blue; never wore a tie and bought suits twice a year. Its really simple. Technology, though, has erased teh insight — way too often
I think there is a difference between privacy and piracy. Technology certainly makes our personal information accessible. Perhaps it is Moore’s law of information access as well. I believe rummaging through my garbage or looking over my shoulder is equally as sinister as hacking a database of social security numbers. The difference today is the amount of information we are required to keep is greater, thus the amount to protect equally as large.
What I find interesting is the cottage industry that feeds on privacy fears. Identity theft protection insurance, Key FOB’s, WAP encryption, cookies, etc. Access codes and account numbers I didn’t even know I needed now need protecting. The wolves are at the gate, and we’d best be armed.
I see the issue of privacy as it pertains to personalization more one of preference. We all know the proverb “it has been said that someone’s name is the sweetest word that person ever hears, so do whatever it takes to make that sound. You’ll do more than impress them. You’ll make them feel memorable.” The convenience of a FreshDirect shopping list compiled by my previous shopping habits, recommended new Jazz CD’s prompted by my purchase of Kind Of Blue even the Gerber baby food coupon handed to me by the cashier with my receipt because I bought diapers for my twins all make my life better, faster and cheaper. Perhaps, it’s not what life is all about, but it feels pretty slick.
When I was interviewed on 20/20 in their year in review episode, John Stossel shot right to the point- “Stephanie, is there such a thing as too much information?” My reply then, as it is now, “Probably, but not for me.”
How do the good store owners get that way? Training? Rewards? Maybe it is the presence of human in the loop, at the point of sale rather than tied to comms and the offer. Maybe the human-ness of the human. Technology as an aid to memory? Tom
How about Humanity at the core of all we do — Technology is an enhancer — not a replacement
I never had any baby food coupon handed to by the the store. But last year, i had a Pampers/wallmart offering that i got from wallmart where P&G;was sending wallmart gift card to people who mailed their diaper reciepts. i buy diapers anyways, just got me $45 (3 gift card) from that offering
I never had any baby food coupon handed to by the the store. But last year, i had a Pampers/wallmart offering that i got from wallmart where P&G;was sending wallmart gift card to people who mailed their diaper reciepts. i buy diapers anyways, just got me $45 (3 gift card) from that offering
organic nappies