Marketing Disrupted: Balancing Data and Desire

The new practitioner’s guide to marketing is here. Marketing Disrupted is a podcast series that highlights the industry’s ongoing transformation. Accenture Canada’s Digital Customer & Marketing Transformation Lead, Brent Chaters, co-hosts with bestselling author and technology reporter Amber Mac. They interview some of the top global CMOs and marketing leaders who get real on being comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.

The latest debate on everyone’s radar is a bit of an unsettling one: Privacy versus personalization.

On one hand, it’s incredible that sites like Google and Amazon are now so in tune with us as users that they can cater to our desires without us needing to directly express them.

But, on the other hand, isn’t it a little invasive that they seem to know us so well?

The second episode of Marketing Disrupted, “Balancing Data and Desire,” looks at this intermixing of “creepy” and “cool” – and cautions when this personalization could cross into unethical territory.

The discussion first requires an understanding of what privacy really means to people – particularly in this age of digital disruption. Sara Clodman, the VP of Public Affairs at the Canadian Marketing Association, holds that privacy is “very much still alive,” despite a popular belief to the contrary. However, keeping it alive requires balancing consumers’ wants with the ability to provide “smart” recommendations.

Google is perhaps one of the most commonly drawn-on examples when we talk about technology “knowing” us. I also believe it’s one of the most essential tools in every marketer’s toolkit – I refer to it on the podcast as the air that every marketer breathes.

Someone who is of course no stranger to the fact that the tech company has become a digital powerhouse is Justin De Graaf, Google’s Head of Ads Research and Insights. In some cases, it’s not even what you tell Google you’re doing, De Graaf shared with Amber and I, “[but] the fact that they can make inferences across the patterns and activities that you’re doing as a consumer.”

What follows this personalized approach is questions around regulation and privacy, which are not new to marketers. In fact, the discussion goes as far back as the 1800’s, when some of the first advertisements went up in London, England. There are new hurdles to tackle each time new pieces of technology are introduced, new ways to connect with customers gain momentum, and new ways to store data come into the mainstream.

But is there a point when it all becomes too much?

élo?se Gratton, Partner and National Co-Leader – Privacy and Data Protection at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP (BLG LLP) – one of Canada’s top privacy lawyers – knows all too well that people’s differences in the level of personalization they will accept is a major concern for both privacy regulators and marketers. “By pushing the boundaries constantly, people will not expect privacy anymore,” she says on the podcast, “[and] for people that are still concerned, they’re going to stop using technology.”

So, the million-dollar question: Is there a happy medium for consumers between privacy and personalization, or is maintaining privacy a losing battle? Fortunately, there is still room for both.

As Loni Stark, senior director of strategy and product marketing for Adobe’s Experience Manager and Target business, explains,

“People that have relationships with brands don’t want to be treated like a stranger.”

Any other relationship risks less loyalty, and less business.

That’s true even amongst our expert guests – Sara Clodman, for example, finds it much more relevant to receive electronic coupons for things that she actually buys and uses in her family, rather than ones that will go straight in the recycle bin. This is enabled by data personalization. Not to mention that this is “ultimately what marketing is about,” Stark adds. “It’s about understanding the customer.”

Perhaps therein lies the key to keeping this personalization in the ethical clear. “I think it’s really a matter of helping consumers understand that using their data to target the things that they want is actually a very useful thing,” Clodman concludes.

There is an appropriate use of data – it’s our job as marketers to pinpoint and capitalize on it.

Listen in! Marketing Disrupted is available to download on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast and wherever you get your podcasts. You can share your thoughts on the evolving role of marketing professionals with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.