Marketing is getting increasingly personalized. Mobile technology in particular is making it easier than ever for marketers to personalize their message to consumers. But “personalization” doesn’t necessarily mean “personal.” Personalization is a blunt instrument. It’s often inaccurate. And when marketing tries to personalize, but misses the mark, the effect can be more annoying that not personalizing at all.
Awkward personalization happens at every Starbucks where the barista tries to guess the spelling of your name. There’s a funny meme of Starbucks name fails (including Virginia). A couple weeks ago, someone put out a video profiling a Starbucks barista who butchers everyone’s name for sport.
I think the awkward name personalization at Starbucks is symbolic of where marketers are with personalization in general. Pinterest recently sent a congratulatory email to many women with the message “you’re getting married!” because these women had pinned a lot of wedding-related pictures. Unfortunately, many of these women were single. Pinterest drew inferences from site behavior that ultimately wasn’t correct.
It will be interesting to watch how brands continue to experiment with personalization. As the technology improves, and the the inferences become more accurate, it will be interesting to see if and how consumers welcome personalized contact.
Here’s a cartoon I drew on the Future of Advertising last year. I’m interested in your thoughts on how marketers should incorporate personalization.
(Marketoonist Monday: I’m giving away a signed print of this week’s cartoon. Just share an insightful comment to this week’s post by 5:00 PST on Monday. Thanks!)
Danny says
November 17, 2014 at 6:51 amI think one of these days Paul of Starbucks will be getting his coffee back minus the cup. Thankfully I am not a customer of he franchise.
Also not a fan of personalised marketing because it is most definetely not personal. It is pretentious and assumes a relationship between customer and provider that does not exist and may not have been earned
Danny says
November 17, 2014 at 6:54 amAlso not a fan of personalised marketing because it is most definetely not personal. It is pretentious and assumes a relationship between customer and provider that does not exist and may not have been earned
Dan Greenberg says
November 17, 2014 at 7:01 amImpossible Software is a platform for video individualization… the video part of personalization. However, we don’t create the original video – we just customize it (on the fly at any scale). Since we’re the platform, we see a lot of campaigns from a lot of agencies and others. Some general observations:
1) Data quality matters… as your cartoon clearly shows.
2) Drive-to matters a lot for video… even if it’s just the video that’s personalized. (No one clicks on a video off your home page just to see how you’ve personalized it.)
3) The creative, including call to action, matters. Personalization will not make up for weak creative.
Stephen Macklin says
November 17, 2014 at 7:23 amMost personalization that I have seen feels contrived.
It reminds me of the early days of the digital typeface revolution when every piece of direct mail started showing up with a “handwriting” font on the envelope. It probably worked once and after that I never noticed it again.
Unless it’s a brand/company that I have a relationship with, personalization feels like just another marketing gimmick to ignore.
Ankit Desai says
November 17, 2014 at 9:16 amI think there is way more to personalization than addressing a person by their name. ‘Personalized’ marketing will take off for real when businesses start to give real time one-to-one offers. (You’re within 300 meters of my retail store, you visited my online store last week and checked out this blue shirt -here, have a 20% off discount).
The key thing here seems to be context, which is exactly portrayed in your ‘Future of Advertising’ cartoon. Addressing me by my name is going to be most effective if the ad is also directed to me in the right place, at the right time, and with the right offer. Otherwise it’s just the generic stuff that most of my mailing lists spam me with.
Half-a-mind-2 says
November 17, 2014 at 11:58 amPersonalization is great – when it is real. Imagine this scenario, I introduce myself to someone for the first time: “My name is Stephen” I say. They say, “Okay Steve…” WTF? That is at best ‘fake personalization’ and at worst, ‘presumptious’.
Personalization is not saying your name, but knowing your order – like one of my local cafes. While Nathan probably doesn’t know my name, he knows my regular order – but he doesn’t presume that is what I want. He asks whether I want “the usual?”
Marketers seem to embrace that advice: “authenticity is what customers want, if you can fake that, you’ve got it made”!
Broacher says
November 17, 2014 at 4:47 pmDead-wrong personalization attempts just reinforce cynicism towards all marketing and advertising. (and many customers don’t have a lot of room left in there to go!).
And then there’s the deliberate personalization cons. Like when I received a greeting card sized, brightly pastel coloured envelope with my name and address only on the front, done in (what seemed like!) a hand-drawn marker script — and a hand-applied stamp.
Reality? My local Hyundai dealer making me a ‘personalized’ offer to purchase a new vehicle.
It’s the encroachment into the ‘personalized’ territory for overly-obvious commercial intents that entrenches my sworn avoidance of companies who play that kind of game.
As for personalized shopping algorithms and their Big Brother ‘suggestions’ — that only spooks me out all the more (especially as I don’t participate in any loyalty ‘points’ programs).
‘John Anderson’ — we know your pain, and out of respect for your privacy and sanity, we will NOT suggest any topical preparations to help you.
TracieD says
November 21, 2014 at 3:52 amLook, it’s pretty much nearly midnight here (I may be exaggerating the nearly as its precisely 10.49pm) and the most inciteful thing that I have to say about this post is that I really enjoy reading your posts and love your cartoons especially as you are bold enough to use words like Vagina in them!
Scott (@nametagscott) says
November 23, 2014 at 8:08 amI almost fell out of my goddamn chair laughing. Amazing. Thanks man