Carola Verschoor Carola is an experienced innovator and passionate marketeer who, before becoming Managing Director of BrainJuicer Netherlands, worked for more than 15 years on brand identity, portfolio architecture and innovation issues within the food and beverage industry. She has held marketing positions at Kraft Foods, The Coca-Cola Company, Danone and Sara Lee. She has also gained experience as a marketing and innovation consultant to FMCG clients including Ahold, DSM, Organon and Spadel. Read the full biography here.

Hi I’m a Consumer; Let Me Tell You Something About Myself!

Consumers are increasingly contributing personal information online that can facilitate dialogue between themselves and brands. This can lead to more effective advertising and behavioural targeting. How should brands exhibit good manners and cope with the ethical, practical and technological implications of such a dialogue with their consumers?

9th September, 2010

Dear Research community,

Hello, my name is Carola Verschoor. I’m an Argentinian with an international career, and have finally settled in the Netherlands with my husband and our two children (I share my life with my friends all over the world via FaceBook. I comment about what I’m doing professionally via Twitter. I’ve always enjoyed learning about and helping grow the food industry and have spent 15 years on the client side working for large corporations like Kraft Foods, the Coca-Cola Company and Sara Lee. It’s not surprising that some of my main passions are cooking, eating, and traveling (I have a cookbook in the works which harnesses all three!) I recently joined international market research agency BrainJuicer as Managing Director for their office in the Netherlands. We even made a small video about it to share the news with our clients and relations. As I continue to feed my passion for learning about the synergy and interdependence between marketing and market research; I have become quite fascinated by the topic of behavioural targeting. My suspicion is that I am not alone and many of us have more questions than answers about this fascinating area of consumer interaction.

Why begin an article with this sort of personal introduction? It’s certainly not the standard procedure. But there’s a point to it. With every choice we make, such as joining social media sites, we introduce ourselves to others, and specifically, to brands. We leave artifacts that trace our choices, our behaviour and our actions back to us. How are we accomplishing this, seemingly unaware? And why has behavioural targeting become a key talking point with the rise of social media? Throughout the next several MrWeb postings, I will be sharing my thoughts on behavioural targeting, how it relates to social media, the technologies that facilitate even more specific and designated targeting and the ethical questions that arise when faced with these new research methodologies.

We, as consumers, leave trails – foot and finger prints of every transaction we make and every interaction we engage in. Nothing really new: consumers have been leaving trails in our increasingly connected world years before the internet starting tracking them.

Swiping credit cards and walking through CCTV covered areas leaves traceable paths of our behaviour. And sometimes even a seemingly simple cash transaction at a cash register for the brand of our choice can leave a trail. Brands like Nespresso took 'belonging' to a new level by tracing coffee drinking behaviour, capsule by capsule, flavour by flavour through the use of an exclusive distribution channel. Point-of-purchase information at the simplest of retail establishments contributes to an increasing amount of highly granular information about consumer lifestyles. Whether it’s through automated pre-paid toll road systems (EasyPass/Fast Lane), mail-order subscriptions, or even charitable donations, one thing is for certain: we have always been, and will always be tracked and targeted as consumers.

So why all the hubbub around online behavioural targeting? Clearly, digital footprints are certainly new in terms of form but hardly so in terms of content. Virtual interactions have the same level of exposure of actual, physical interactions but carry a much heavier weight for consumers. The rules of the game have changed - in the past consumers would be designated as receptors to a company’s targeted message – they were ‘talked at’ by brands. Today, consumers demand that brands have a conversation with them. What better mechanism to facilitate this communication than that infinite vastness of open space, the internet?

Just as I introduced myself to you earlier (through this online opportunity), and just as you would build a relationship with a new friend, consumers will introduce themselves and continue to contribute information to brands who will listen and respond in order to foster an open dialogue. Our information is out there; whether on FaceBook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, brands just need to present themselves in a friendly, unobtrusive and respectful manner. We have seen evidence of this in the rise of brands offering the opportunity for consumers to create their own advertisements. However, to facilitate such strong relationships, it’s important that brands be willing to invest the time and energy into creating a trustworthy image. For example, in Old Spice’s most recent campaign, their increasingly popular and recognizable spokesperson responded directly to customers’ Tweets in real-time for the amazing total of eleven hours.

The ethical debate over whether or not tracking methods should be used to target web users for commercial purposes is as old as commercial advertising itself, and certainly not without strong opposition. However, with just a little transparency (and certainly an air of fun) consumers give every indication of being willing to share their insights with their brands.

How does all this relate to behavioural targeting? The answer is not as dramatic as one might think. There is a natural reluctance among humans to openly share personal information if it makes them feel vulnerable. And while we shouldn’t be reckless, a degree of exposure is almost unavoidable. We have learnt to be careful, having been told time and time again to not talk to, take candy from, or go home with strangers. Therefore, brands should aspire to earn the right to be ‘friends’ with consumers as opposed to voyeuristic strangers. And above all brands should embrace the dialogue with their consumers, just like a friend would do, and not an imposing, pushy, and demeaning attitude. There is nothing wrong with wanting to maximize revenues and profits. Consumers accept this to be the rules of the game. What is wrong is to do so at all costs, crossing the boundaries of advertising ethics. Those ethics have always been there, and the debate of the position of advertisers is a very valid one for all media and all communications. Not solely for internet-based information.

Before you read this article, you knew nothing about me – about my passions, my history, or even where I’m from. Now that I’ve introduced myself, I urge you to do the same. I’m eager to share more of my thoughts on behavioural targeting in the coming articles, but I would also like to address any and all of yours as well. So please ask me questions, give me comments, and tell me a bit about yourself. It is only through this type of communication that we can extend our virtual ‘hands’, and learn from each other. We can feel comforted by the fact that yes, there is someone watching, but the communication is no longer a prescriptive monologue from brands and advertisers, but rather an engaging dialogue in which everything we add, post, and upload is used as fuel for creative fires.

Sincerely, Carola Verschoor

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