"Real Life Mad Man (@margieclayman) said...
On the one hand, there are people like me who literally would run away from data mining if I could. I mean, shoot me in the back, I am a coward in the face of that stuff. It creeps me out!
On the other hand, though, there is what some are calling the "opportunity economy." I was just reading a chapter about this in The Now Revolution. A restaurant worked it out so that whenever you check into a neighboring restaurant on Foursquare, a little pop-up comes up saying, "Well, you could also come over here since you're so close."
Creepy because they know exactly where you are, but a great marketing technique.
Good post - lots to ponder :)
But to answer your question about anyone doing this, the answer is yes. I'm that marketer who is tapping into your thoughts. I am that marketer that plants the subconscious seed that says "I just did this, I think I'll go here next" I use all of the information you have talked about, and a little bit more to reverse engineer people's social media profiles to get them to spend more money with my clients.
As a consumer, I wish more marketers were doing this too. I would love to only see deals for things I already wanted. I would love to see less noise in the products that are advertised to me. I wish life were a bit more like pandora radio. I wish advertisers understood my needs, and gave me what I wanted. I think that would cut back on wasted dollars for sure.
Margie, you're absolutely right, I am tip-toeing the line the line a bit. I'm torn. The marketer in me wants to capitalize on this, but the sociologist in me says, "Whoa, total invasion of privacy!" Recently, Wisconsin passed legislation regulating the Payday Loan industry because folks were being taken advantage of by outrageous fees and interest rates. On the one hand, they knew what the terms of the agreement were when they signed the contract; on the other hand, these businesses profited by knowingly lending money to people who would not be able to pay it back. Who is in the wrong?
I'm not suggesting that Social Media Marketing is nearly as deceitful as what happened in the loan industry; but, when you create a Facebook account or add a new app to your iPhone, you agree to the terms and conditions (which you may or may not read) that, in some cases, allow those applications to tweet on your behalf or share your information with third parties. It seems now that you’re almost obligated to be on Facebook, at minimum. I currently use Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace (although I haven’t been on MySpace in half a decade) and I am beginning to feel pressure from my fellow social media-lites to join some other platforms as well. None of them are coming out and telling me to join, but by not joining, I feel left out. At any rate, “Social Media (Peer) Pressure” is a whole other topic in itself. The point is, we are kind of “forced” into divulging all this personal information and have little to no control over how it is shared.
In the corner of my Facebook page at this very moment I see that I should support our troops by purchasing a survival bracelet at "survivalstraps.com". Coincidentally, I recently posted well wishes on my cousin’s wall. He just arrived in Afghanistan for his 5th (or so) tour. I also have (roughly) 57 “friends” that have served, in some capacity, in the armed forces. Coincidence? Not likely. I can’t represent survivalstraps.com, but I am willing to bet that they are in no way endorsed by the armed forces. That’s just one click I don’t want to make in the event that it causes this marketing chain to spin on and batter me with more ads. My question then, is this: How far is too far? I agree 100% with what @tommyismyname said, “I would love to see less noise in the products that are advertised to me. I wish life were a bit more like pandora radio. I wish advertisers understood my needs, and gave me what I wanted.” I think this strategy would be better than any existing strategy for the marketer and equally as beneficial to the consumer. My concern comes from Peter Parker’s (Spiderman) Grandfather, “With great power comes great responsibility!” I’m weary that many marketers may use this power negatively, deceitfully, to create exponentially more amounts of noise. Thoughts?
The truth is, the level of attention that goes into doing this sort of "inception" like marketing requires so much thought and effort, that it is really difficult to just throw stuff out there.
ReplyDeleteYou have to really understand your ideal customer's mind, what they want, what they need, what makes them as people tick.
The trick is to align your product in a way that they have already shown that they are pre-disposed to buy. This may mean that your "ideal target market" may only be composed of a few thousand people total, but to those few thousand people your product is the best thing that ever existed.
Many marketers are still taking the "scattershot" approach where they try to get just about anyone to take interest. The problem with this method is that often times people will buy into hype instead of making an informed decision to buy a product.
In the method where you are "hacking" a customer's mind, you're bringing people who are already raising their hand saying "I need you" into your funnel. Anyone who tries to go this route in a deceitful manner is destined to fail if they don't deliver what they said they would, because their ideal customers will just well up with disappointment.
Well said, Sir! Word. Of. Mouth. Brand Champions. THAT yields big returns. Have you heard of Clotaire Rapaille ( http://www.archetypediscoveriesworldwide.com/ )? This is why marketing professionals should be Communication Majors! ;)
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