The Juxtaposition between Mass Personalisation and Digital Marketing

Brands are now, more than ever, wanting to know you. What you wear, eat, drink, watch and even trying to predict your wants before you do. Creepy? Maybe. But it is definitely increasing consumer satisfaction for those who are being served exactly how they want to, leading to greater customer loyalty. But the personalisation doesn’t just stop at how you are marketed by brands, it continues into you becoming the creator of your own product – check out Forbes’ take on the big opportunity in consumer customisation.

However, are brands getting carried away with mass personalisation? Is the true use and purpose of the ‘WWW’ being forgotten? The alarms should be ringing for Brand Managers as…

…they could be trying to over-personalise for consumers before they even come into contact with their brand.

Let’s re-wind a bit, who remember this image? The ‘WWW’, it’s harder nowadays to remember when we do access the internet via smart phones for our favourite apps or using google search, but the world wide web is the way we access our favourite brands and social media accounts. Well it is also the tool that Brand Managers started to use in the 21st century to offer their goods and services to all consumers in a non-physical capacity. However, this is now in jeopardy as brand managers are beginning to forget that they should be trying to target multiple (if not all) consumers when publishing their good or service on the web.

By focusing on the individual, brand managers may be losing out on an entire market

Insert managerial issue  – Overemphasis on consumer behaviour – software (such as Pureclarity – eCommerce and Omnicovert) are now more popular than ever as they allow managers to track consumer behaviour when they visit their (or other) websites. In turn, this software is being captured, analysed and then used to show the consumer what they want before they even know what they are looking for. Should all consumers be aimed at being mass personalised? Is it more important to only for loyal customers? ‘Digital Marketing Mag’ certainly believes there is a paradox apparent.

Like a golden egg amongst a sea of white, some consumers may feel as if they are being ‘left out’. Whilst over-personalisation of a company targets a select few who replicate existing loyal customers – the average consumer who hasn’t experienced getting to know the brand may feel overwhelmed and could fail to experience the transition of becoming loyal to a brand.

So if your are a brand manager or employed in marketing-capacity, ensure that you are still using the world wide web to target as many consumer markets as you can. Once a consumer has caught your brands’ attention, then start the process of making them enjoy their experience via individual personalisation.