I hear people complain all the time that they might get targeted by a marketer. People don’t want to give out information and be hit with all of this crap in their email, on their screens, and in the mail. Here are some facts:
- You will keep seeing marketing anyway.
- Marketing pays for the websites you visit, TV shows you watch, sports you enjoy, and so on.
- Companies need to market to get their products out.
- You would have to avoid magazines, radio, TV, the mail, email, billboards, sports, and the Internet to avoid marketing.
In other words, you can’t really control the amount of marketing you get hit with, but only how appropriate it is. Not sharing any information will not keep you free from advertising.
You want to be targeted
When you do a Google search, you want to find exactly what you are looking for. You are doing a targeted search. Getting you connected to the goods and services you want or need is a good thing. That’s what targeted marketing is.
I go to my Facebook page and I see ads for University of Iowa clothing, tools for graphic designers, Chicago hot spots, and art supplies. These are all things targeted at me. I’m not creeped! I’m not pissed off! I would rather see those ads than ads for Notre Dame gear and women’s shoes.
The “nightmare” scenario is that companies will know so much about you that you will only see ads for products and services that interest you. That is great. You have to see ads anyway, so how does it hurt to only see ads appropriate to you? I’ve never bought anything from the Hawkeye Store because their ad is on my Facebook.
We live in a world full of strip club billboards and commercials for erectile disfunction. I would rather those customers were targeted and I didn’t have to see those ads.
I get three pieces of mail every day from Comcast and AT&T selling cable. I’m not going to get cable. I wish they did targeted marketing and I didn’t have to throw out six mailers every day.
Efficiency is a good thing
If more marketing is targeted, the more marketing will be successful. Companies don’t have to charge as much to get customers and can provide better products (or just make more profit). Pointless, wasted marketing is a drain on time, money, and natural resources, so I would rather the marketing be useful. We shop in stores and online for things that we want. The easier it is to know what’s available and where to get it, the easier our lives will be.
Please target me.
