Arguably, many of us do spend a substantial amount of time deleting dozens of irrelevant and unwelcomed mails, sometimes ending up unsubscribing them.
What is Mass Marketing: Mass Marketing that aims to target a larger audience, unconcerned about the demographics or the target audience has been losing ground partly because of the seismic shifts in marketing and partly due to the Data regulation laws put in place.
Data as the driver of the economy:
Data has been universally recognised as the currency of the town.
Today, the world finds itself in a digital age where data is the driver to the functionality of anything and everything be it government or corporates. As the saying goes ‘good data beats opinion’. With data, everything can be measured and improved.
Simply put, Data refers to the information that is transmitted or stored electronically. Big Data implies a massive volume of unstructured and structured data.
Let's understand why Data has garnered so much significance.
Big data has been used to provide customer insights by analyzing customer behavior through data derived from various sources.
This business model of the internet is called Surveillance Capitalism. The revenue sources for many companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are done through the monetization of users' data. Through user data, companies customize advertisements, news feeds and friend suggestions to each account. Each time we use any technology such as an e-Commerce app, we provide loads of data that help companies to track our habits and likings.
Likewise, Netflix has taken a lead in the industry by using big data to create targeted suggestions, with customized lists of movies, web series and TV sitcoms for every subscriber. Eventually, services are developed in line with customer's demands and expectations that improve the firm’s profits.
Need for Data Protection laws:
While data is invaluable it's also a source of risk and liability. There's always a lurking fear of personal data in the form of contact details, identifiable details, usage details or even financial information being leaked out to a 'third party'.
Data privacy, in this regard, is the right of consumers to decide how their personal information cannot/can be used by third-party organizations.
The revised Data Protection Bill of India, December 2021 has brought India into the camp of countries with strong data protection laws. The Bill mandates the data fiduciaries to maintain security safeguards to protect personal data and also upheld a set of data protection obligations, transparency and accountability measures.
It is similar to global benchmarks, particularly European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation in many regards such as codifying the relationship between Data Principals(whose data is collected) and Data fiduciaries (who process the data)
Albeit, the Bill has been criticized on the ground that it seeks to override individual data privacy with State security since it doesn't include any provisions for surveillance reform. However, these regulations entitle consumers to the right to be forgotten and the power to counter the tsunami of marketing messages, mostly through email.
Concerns raised and associated solutions:
To overcome the stated issues, businesses have devised new ways to comply with these rules in a manner that the mass marketing approach will soon meet its death.
Opt-in is the new kingpin, which means that the spray and pray tactics, that is, sending out different marketing communications to uncountable people (spray) assuming some of them to show interest (pray)- while not being very mindful of the ROI or conversion tracking is obsolete.
Customers end up deleting emails, without caring to read them, which implies that any targeted marketing attempt gets vaporized in the clutter, thereby missing its audience.
Soon enough, the non-availability of databases, lists of purchases and contact information for the target audience will severely curtail the ways users are tracked and contacted with marketing messages. Since data helps marketers to provide personalized services to lower costs and increase conversions, their ad revenue is also hit strikingly. For instance, it is believed that Facebook may end up losing $84 billion a year ad revenue owing to the data regulations.
At this point, it is also remarkable to acknowledge the Privacy paradox here wherein customers are willing to impart data in exchange for customised and unique experience.
In fact, 61% of millennials willingly share personal data, if it provides them with a more personalised online experience as per V12 data.
This underlines the inconsistency between privacy concerns and actual online behavior. Hence, it is a user's rational understanding that decides what data is to be provided and what is not.
We need to be cognizant of the fact that copious data is a thing of the past, and marketing dynamics have changed from mass marketing to more targeted, focused marketing. The following trends have been dominating the sphere:
- Quality content - Focusing on demographics to create quality content (ads and creative media) that the audience can strongly resonate with, aspiring to meet the needs of many.
- Integrated brand metrics - Essentially, the brand starts looking at a bigger picture from a macro perspective rather than a more granular lens. The different aspects of marketing like ROI, customer satisfaction inter alia is persistently evaluated. Hence, brands analyse the behavioral actions of a larger audience as a whole.
- Transparency - With stricter data guidelines put into place, companies have to be reasonably transparent in making the individuals, who are the most important stakeholder, aware of what different purposes will their information be used for.
Data protection laws are a mixed bag of new challenges and opportunities. The most profound trait of any individual is to adapt to the changes swiftly, which is the only constant in marketing. Privacy laws will foster transparent use of data for innovation in the age of digital economy. Companies that respect this privacy beyond legal regulations in terms of data usage transparency will eventually build a wide loyalty base.