{"id":29759,"date":"2020-12-06T14:48:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-06T22:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=29759"},"modified":"2020-12-06T14:48:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-06T22:48:42","slug":"personalized-marketing-can-be-ineffective-and-creepy-here-are-3-research-backed-tips-for-getting-it-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=29759","title":{"rendered":"Personalized Marketing Can Be Ineffective\u2014and Creepy. Here Are 3 Research-Backed Tips for Getting It Right."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Simply having a compelling message isn\u2019t enough.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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BASED ON THE RESEARCH OF<\/div>\n

Jacob D. Teeny<\/a><\/p>\n

Joseph J. Siev<\/p>\n

Pablo Bri\u00f1ol<\/p>\n

Richard E. Petty<\/p>\n

Source:\u00a0https:\/\/insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu\/article\/personalized-marketing-can-be-ineffective-and-creepy?utm_source=subscriber&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pianomailer122020&pnespid=hrc3pf5AXR6N6VaBiszsIhWCgAxZ7dyUCsil.PrF<\/a><\/p>\n

If you scroll through your inbox right now, you\u2019ll probably find a message from an online retailer, touting a selection of products handpicked \u201cjust for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emails like these are one form of personalized matching, a persuasive tactic that dates all the way back to Aristotle,\u00a0who believed<\/a>\u00a0speakers must consider the emotional state of their audience when making arguments. Modern technology has bolstered the effectiveness of this ancient strategy, making it possible for marketers to gain ever more detailed information about potential customers\u2014and use that knowledge to grab and hold their attention.<\/p>\n

At the simplest level, matching (also called segmenting, targeting, tailoring, customizing, or personalizing) takes place when \u201ca persuasive message has a characteristic in common with the recipient of that message,\u201d explains\u00a0Jacob Teeny<\/a>, an assistant professor of marketing at the Kellogg School.<\/p>\n

But despite the ubiquity of matching, we know surprisingly little about when, why, and how it succeeds.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Teeny and colleagues\u2014Joseph J. Siev<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Richard E. Petty<\/a>\u00a0of the Ohio State University and\u00a0Pablo Bri\u00f1ol<\/a>\u00a0of the Universidad Aut\u00f3noma de Madrid\u2014decided to review a large body of published studies on personalized matching to see what they could uncover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere was an outstanding question of, why do personally matched messages work?\u201d Teeny says. \u201cThis review allowed us a chance to give more of a bird\u2019s-eye perspective on some of the underlying mechanisms behind the phenomenon.\u201d Also important: it would help them see when it fails.<\/p>\n

So what did they learn\u2014and how can marketers use this information to their advantage?<\/p>\n

Teeny offers three tips based on the team\u2019s research on when and how to make matching most effective.<\/p>\n

1. You still need a compelling message about your product.<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re going to use matching in your marketing, it\u2019s essential to make sure that you\u2019ve got a strong message about your product.<\/p>\n

Why? Matching, the research shows, can prompt increased \u201celaboration\u201d\u2014the amount of mental effort and engagement you put into contemplating a message. The more closely matched the message is, the more likely you are to contemplate it. This heightened attention, Teeny and his coauthors believe, is a primary source of personalized matching\u2019s power.<\/p>\n

For example,\u00a0in one study<\/a>, participants were asked whether they focused more on their external appearance and social image (high self-monitors) or on their internal beliefs (low self-monitors). Then, participants saw a shampoo ad that either highlighted the shampoo\u2019s appearance benefits (a match for high self-monitors) or its effectiveness (a match for low self-monitors). The ads also varied in how strongly they made their case.<\/p>\n

Participants paid more attention to ads that matched their level of self-monitoring: when surveyed on their opinions of the products, participants rated matched ads that contained strong arguments more favorably than either mismatched ads containing strong arguments or matched ads containing weak arguments. In other words, participants seemed to more fully process the content of matched ads than mismatched ads\u2014making it critical that the content actually be compelling.<\/p>\n

The study showcases the double-edged sword of matching: Marketers want consumers to pay attention. But if a highly relevant ad catches their eye, only to disappoint them with lackluster claims, matching can easily backfire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re using matching, don\u2019t just think you can throw it out there and all of a sudden it\u2019s going to work. It has to be accompanied by some compelling reasons,\u201d Teeny cautions.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s especially true if you\u2019re targeting people in ways, in places, or at times when they have lots of opportunity to think. A billboard along the highway, Teeny notes, naturally allows for less elaboration than an ad at a train station, where people may be standing around for a while.<\/p>\n

Heightened elaboration also means that matching works best when it\u2019s employed in a way that\u2019s actually relevant to the product. \u201cFor a political ad, using language that matches the person\u2019s morality is going to be more successful, because politics and morality are obviously connected,\u201d Teeny says. But trying to appeal to morality when selling, say, a pair of jeans may not work as well.<\/p>\n

2. Look for unexpected ways to match, and choose the ones that are most important.<\/h2>\n

Factors such as age, gender, and political beliefs are the bread-and-butter of personalization\u2014for good reason. But the research shows there are lots of other, less expected ways to target customers, like the physical or temporal context in which you are reaching them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that surprised me was how matching qualities of the environment can influence you,\u201d Teeny says. \u201cIf you\u2019re a daytime person and you get an email during the day, you\u2019re going to read it more carefully than if it came at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance,\u00a0one study<\/a>\u00a0found that playing highly emotional music in a store increased purchases among impulsive shoppers.\u00a0Even the virtual \u201csetting\u201d of an online retailer can influence purchasing intentions<\/a>: utilitarian shoppers prefer simple, easy-to-navigate websites, while pleasure-focused hedonic shoppers prefer a more immersive experience. Understanding which type of customer you want to reach can help you decide what type of environment to create for them.<\/p>\n

Some ways of matching with customers rely on transitory characteristics, like a person\u2019s emotional state; others on more innate ones, like introversion versus extraversion. To date, studies have demonstrated effective matching based on a range of factors, including people\u2019s\u00a0approach versus avoidance orientation<\/a>\u00a0(that is, responsiveness to incentives versus disincentives);\u00a0regulatory focus<\/a>\u00a0(the preference for seeking pleasure versus avoiding pain);\u00a0\u201cBig 5\u201d personality traits<\/a>\u00a0(levels of extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism); and even level of\u00a0sports fandom<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, some of these factors are more consequential than others. \u201cFocus on characteristics that are very central to the person\u2019s identity, rather than a peripheral trait,\u201d Teeny advises. Appealing to, say, political orientation (assuming, of course, it\u2019s relevant to the product or message) will probably have more lasting persuasive effects than matching based on a consumer\u2019s favorite color.<\/p>\n

Teeny and his coauthors also found evidence that personalizing a message along multiple dimensions simultaneously can increase persuasion. For instance,\u00a0one study on smoking cessation<\/a>\u00a0found that highly personalized messages were more effective than minimally personalized messages that just contained the participant\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

3. Don\u2019t be creepy (or unethical).<\/h2>\n

How personalized is too personalized? It\u2019s an important question, Teeny says, one that marketers and researchers are still trying to calibrate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf you\u2019re scrolling and think, \u2018Whoa, that ad is really tailored for me\u2019\u2014as soon as you have that metacognitive awareness, it starts to bring in a feeling of, \u2018Oh, I think they\u2019re trying to manipulate me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jacob Teeny<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While consumers are broadly aware of (and mostly resigned to) the reality that their online data is being tracked, certain types of targeted ads hit too close to home. Consumers react poorly, studies found,\u00a0when they receive messages based too closely on their transaction history<\/a>\u00a0or if they realize\u00a0the information being used to target them was collected from another source\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re scrolling and think, \u2018Whoa, that ad is really tailored for me\u2019\u2014as soon as you have that metacognitive awareness, it starts to bring in a feeling of, \u2018Oh, I think they\u2019re trying to manipulate me,\u2019\u201d Teeny says. In other words, when consumers become consciously aware of the targeting, the sense of feeling tricked can cause the match to backfire.<\/p>\n

People also react poorly to being targeted on characteristics they feel are negative or rooted in stereotype. When consumers believed they had received an ad for a weight loss program based on their size,\u00a0they perceived the ad and its messages more negatively<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to concerns about what consumers will tolerate, marketers should also consider ethical questions around targeting\u2014questions that are looming larger as technology improves, Teeny says.<\/p>\n

For example, it may be possible, based on someone\u2019s online behavior, to determine that they are suffering from depression. Is it ethical to use this information to show them ads for chocolate ice cream?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do we draw the line? That\u2019s a really interesting and difficult question and something that really doesn\u2019t have a lot of regulation,\u201d Teeny says. \u201cI think this is a really important topic of discussion and something that deserves further large-scale investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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