Online Privacy: The Undercover Opportunity?
As published in MadCoUK
When we think about online privacy in the U.S., the word that first comes to mind is "problem." Indeed, for e-merchants and e-businesses (and offline businesses with e-business components), the privacy issue is fraught with peril.
Companies "caught" on the wrong side of the issue get hit hard by abroadside of negative publicity, consumer outcry, and bad business results.
Witness DoubleClick. About a year ago, DoubleClick announced plans to combine its anonymous online user profiles with personally identifiable information from the databases of its newly acquired subsidiary, Abacus Direct.
The resulting hew and cry were deafening, culminating in a Federal Trade Commission investigation that was only recently dropped after months of mea culpas and super-stringent privacy protection initiatives by DoubleClick.
Making matters worse, there is a large and growing body of data that attests to the fact that people simply will not shop at or provide information to sites due to privacy and security concerns. This is one of the great inhibitors of the ultimate success of online business.
To top it all off, industry initiatives (like P3P) and accelerating government regulation (like HIPPA, COPPA, GLBA and Safe Harbor) are pushing the entire online world into the realm of mandated compliance.
So, why are increased government regulation, compliance complexities, consumer and media hyper-sensitivity, and the headaches involved in simply understanding the issues let alone getting on the right side of them, actually good news for marketers?
Because inherent in this privacy "problem" are powerful opportunities for smarter marketing, increased sales, stronger customer loyalty, enhanced corporate reputation, and heightened profits.
In "consultant speak," marketers have the opportunity and need to facilitate a "value exchange" with the people they interact with online. Put in plainer terms, consumers want a better, more relevant online experience. They literally want you know them well enough so that you will market to them in a more intelligent way. The right products.
The right promotions. The right services. At the right time.
In fact, they are willing to share in-depth information about themselves with you. But if, and only if, you go out of your way to assure their privacy and safeguard their information...as well as if it were your very own information.
All well and good. But how do you accomplish this? There are several enabling technologies on the market today that offer high-relevance targeting through real-time, profile-based advertising, promotion and content serving. There are companies that offer different flavors of personalization. There are companies that offer consumer and site-side privacy enablement, along with easier, faster regulatory compliance. And there are companies that integrate many or all of these functionalities into comprehensive privacy and permission-based personalization solutions.
We consider investment of such a solution as a mandatory for best practices e-marketers, whether their core business is offline, online, or both. The ROI is there, as such solutions have the potential to provide greater marketing efficiency and results, as well as consumer trust. They also can help assure that you don't stray over to the dark side of privacy. And they probably cost today to get a workable solution than they will tomorrow, when the need is even more urgent.
For a better sense of the state of privacy and personalization in the U.S.market, you might want to take a look at a White Paper we authored on the subject. Our Agency does not offer products or services in this realm, so it is not a commercial piece or self-serving promotion -- simply a good overview of what's going on. If you'd like a copy, click here .
As published in MadCoUK
When we think about online privacy in the U.S., the word that first comes to mind is "problem." Indeed, for e-merchants and e-businesses (and offline businesses with e-business components), the privacy issue is fraught with peril.
Companies "caught" on the wrong side of the issue get hit hard by abroadside of negative publicity, consumer outcry, and bad business results.
Witness DoubleClick. About a year ago, DoubleClick announced plans to combine its anonymous online user profiles with personally identifiable information from the databases of its newly acquired subsidiary, Abacus Direct.
The resulting hew and cry were deafening, culminating in a Federal Trade Commission investigation that was only recently dropped after months of mea culpas and super-stringent privacy protection initiatives by DoubleClick.
Making matters worse, there is a large and growing body of data that attests to the fact that people simply will not shop at or provide information to sites due to privacy and security concerns. This is one of the great inhibitors of the ultimate success of online business.
To top it all off, industry initiatives (like P3P) and accelerating government regulation (like HIPPA, COPPA, GLBA and Safe Harbor) are pushing the entire online world into the realm of mandated compliance.
So, why are increased government regulation, compliance complexities, consumer and media hyper-sensitivity, and the headaches involved in simply understanding the issues let alone getting on the right side of them, actually good news for marketers?
Because inherent in this privacy "problem" are powerful opportunities for smarter marketing, increased sales, stronger customer loyalty, enhanced corporate reputation, and heightened profits.
In "consultant speak," marketers have the opportunity and need to facilitate a "value exchange" with the people they interact with online. Put in plainer terms, consumers want a better, more relevant online experience. They literally want you know them well enough so that you will market to them in a more intelligent way. The right products.
The right promotions. The right services. At the right time.
In fact, they are willing to share in-depth information about themselves with you. But if, and only if, you go out of your way to assure their privacy and safeguard their information...as well as if it were your very own information.
All well and good. But how do you accomplish this? There are several enabling technologies on the market today that offer high-relevance targeting through real-time, profile-based advertising, promotion and content serving. There are companies that offer different flavors of personalization. There are companies that offer consumer and site-side privacy enablement, along with easier, faster regulatory compliance. And there are companies that integrate many or all of these functionalities into comprehensive privacy and permission-based personalization solutions.
We consider investment of such a solution as a mandatory for best practices e-marketers, whether their core business is offline, online, or both. The ROI is there, as such solutions have the potential to provide greater marketing efficiency and results, as well as consumer trust. They also can help assure that you don't stray over to the dark side of privacy. And they probably cost today to get a workable solution than they will tomorrow, when the need is even more urgent.
For a better sense of the state of privacy and personalization in the U.S.market, you might want to take a look at a White Paper we authored on the subject. Our Agency does not offer products or services in this realm, so it is not a commercial piece or self-serving promotion -- simply a good overview of what's going on. If you'd like a copy, click here .