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Effectiveness Of Online User Databases Questioned
Aleatoric writes: "According to this article from the NY Times, advertisers aren't exactly buying into the claimed effectiveness of targeted online user databases. Not to get complacent, though, it also includes comments from many sites that gather user information concerning their efforts to try and change this attitude." Amusing. It seems Web advertisers are just now learning lessons direct mail and print advertisers learned long ago.
That's the thing about this directed marketing stuff: if you gathered all the information in the world about me, how can you know what kind of car I (or my wife) may buy in the future?
And further, if you already know what kind of car I'm going to buy based on my past history, socio-economic status, and other purchasing habits, then why bother to advertise to me in the first place?
Advertising is about influencing the buyer, not about telling the buyer about what he already wants. If I want to purchase a Miata, I don't need a Mazda advertisement to tell me how wonderful a Miata is; I'll probably just go down to a Mazda dealership and test drive the thing. That is, if I want a thing (an MP3 player, say, or a new computer), I'll probably search it out. At that point, all the advertisements in the world won't matter to me.
So targeting me based on my past statistical information is close to worthless. If I'm inclined to do something, I'll go out and kick the tires--advertising won't change my mind. Targeting me with ads which I'm statistically inclined to do--even if it's statistically correct--won't change my mind because I'm already past the "get my interest" stage where advertising generally appeals.
(The example in the article--that of showing you your stock portfolio in an ad to encourage you to trade: it won't work. If I have an account, I'm already past the "get my interest" stage, and I have the account. No amount of reminding me of what I already own is going to encourage me to manage my money differently.)
Further, based on my and my wife's past statistical information, you could probably guess that I'd want a small sports car. (Male, 34, married but no children nor plans to have one, upper-middle class neighborhood, professonal, college graduate.) But you'd probably never guess in a million years that my wife would fall in love with an S-class Jaguar.
She fell in love with the Jags, by the way, because of a rather effective television commercial starring Sting--which, frankly, was a shot-gun ad and not targeted in any way.
Shotgun ads are great because they get you thinking about things you'd never normally think about--such as wanting to check out a large luxury car when you're used to driving inexpensive subcompacts. If Jaguar would have used nothing but targeted ads, they'd overlook us--and probably lose a potental sale.
I'd happily "drop my shorts" so to speak and provide advertisers all the information about me they want, including my tax returns if they're so inclined. It's worthless crap. My wife and I have no kids; we don't plan to have any--but it doesn't preclude me from shopping in Zany Brainy for Legos, Beany Babies, and little toys for my relative's kids. And we have never owned a luxury car ever, and we're not even in the right target age range--but that doesn't preclude us from kicking the tires on a Jag...