No More Viagra Ads: Maybe Behavioral Targeting Isn't So Bad

Advertising has become increasingly personal. Through online behavioral targeting platforms and other profiling techniques, advertisers are now able to determine more accurately who their audience is, how best to reach them, and what specific products those users should be exposed to—all determined simply from their expressed interests and online page navigations. Advertisers’ ability to know that I am a female between the ages of 18-24 through their collection of the personal information that I have provided on my Facebook account, for example, suggests that they are better off showing me an ad for Dove Body Wash than for Viagra.

The increased ability to track, aggregate, and profile consumer behavior to better direct advertisements to consumers is most certainly a result of advancements made in technology. In Joseph Turow’s article, Audience Construction and Culture Production: Marketing Surveillance in the Digital Age, Turow makes a number of strong arguments for how this shift in advertising and direct marketing comes from technological advancements as well as  the advertising industry’s construction of the consumer.

It is often said that consumers presently hold the the majority of power in the marketplace. And although I agree that we have more power than ever before as consumers in relation to the ad industry, I argue that advertisers also have gained a substantial amount of power due to the fact that, according to Turow, power is gained through the accumulation of resources. As a result of the increased ability to more accurately track, aggregate and profile consumers, advertisers have more resources, and therefore increased leverage over consumers.

Although more power has been placed in the hands of consumers, have we as users exchanged our personal privacy for that power? As technological platforms gather and interpret behavioral consumer data to profile us in ways which would normally cause concern for the average human being, a privacy debate has surfaced in the world of advertising. Is it unethical for advertisers to obtain information about us, or is it their right if we are actively providing that information when we browse and utilize Web Sites such as Amazon and Facebook, which require a substantive amount of personal information from its users?

The key questions are as follows:

• If people are so willing to publicly share their identity online through social media and other sites that require personal information, why are they so against behavioral targeting, which only captures their behavior and not the actual identity of the person behind it?
• How will advertisers work around this privacy issue and reveal to consumers that behavioral targeting can actually be beneficial to both parties?
• What is the reasoning behind why some consumers allow advertisers to behaviorally track their online activity?
• Do consumers that approve of behavioral targeting view this tracking as more of a mutually beneficial relationship with the brand or advertiser?

Advertisers’ attention towards the behaviors and details of consumers, in congruence with technology advancement, contribute to the increased personalization in advertising today. Turow made a valid point in his article highlighting the advertising industry’s construction of the consumer, but in a fragmented digital media world where consumers have the ability to fast forward and ignore ads, technology that can better ensure that consumers are exposed to advertisements is critical to the advertising industry’s survival.

The shift from general advertising—otherwise known as ‘above the line’—where traditional media such as TV and radio were used to produce artistically creative advertisements, towards direct marketing—‘below the line’—a more analytic and scientific approach where actions are encouraged such as links to click, products to buy, etc., has enabled the advertising industry to flourish. The ability to track, measure, and interpret the response rates to advertisements is essential. Direct marketing, largely due to the technology that was created in congruence with this form of advertising, enables just that—measurable marketing. So, one can see in direct marketing how the ability for increased personalization is possible and most successful for advertising agencies as a result of both technology and the marketers' ability to construct the identities and culture of consumers.

This topic is of great interest to me because I feel that behavioral targeting is very prevalent online and has quickly taken over the online space. Behavioral targeting has branched into a network of sites, emails, and also social media platforms. And as technology has evolved, so has the need to better target consumers. The industry is crossing an inflection point, passing from the conventional mass media interrupt and repeat model to a family of advertising models centered on relevance. Consumers are spending more time online and consumer adoption of new technologies has encouraged advertisers to experiment with and employ new online advertising strategies to engage consumers. Advertisers ultimately want consumers to learn about brands, participate with brands in new ways, and to create new brand meanings.

This research topic connects to the gathering and identification of customer insights and the design of valuable customer experiences by attempting to understand why users feel threatened by behavioral targeting. How much personal information is a consumer willing to give advertisers before enough is enough? And will consumer privacy issues limit the effectiveness of behavioral targeting for advertisers in the future? 

My (10.Deep) Brand Experience

During the summer of 2009, I was in New York for an internship and my boyfriend, Patrick, came to visit for 4^th of July weekend. Since he had never been to New York, we made a list of places to cover, and finding a 10.Deep clothing store was one of the top items on our list. 10.Deep is a street wear brand that stresses the importance of the bold power of the individual. The brand also values the music community, and as one of the original New York street wear brands, their motto is simple: forget everyone and listen to yourself. Strength lies in the hands of an individual (10 fingers), not in the approval of one's peers.

So on with the actual experience… we just decided to google map the location and simply typed in 10.Deep. It pinpointed a location and Patrick and I decided to make our journey over. Once we arrived at the location specified on the map, we were a bit confused. It led us to an old and somewhat sketchy building that looked under construction. We didn’t come all this way for nothing, so we went on up to the specified room number, #511. I felt relieved that we went during the daytime because the narrow hallways seemed to be closing in on us. Graffiti was sprayed all over the walls making us second guess our decision to enter this old building until we finally reached room #511. It was definitely not what we were anticipating, a closed wooden door with a peephole, a small yellow 10.Deep sticker and a sheet of paper stating the hours.

We knocked on the door and waited for a moment until a man came and answered the door. He asked what he could help us with and we realized that the place at which we were at was not a store, but actually the 10.Deep headquarters. Regardless of the mistake, the man let us in and showed us around. The place was full of clutter, but what caught my eye was a couch surrounded by photo lighting umbrellas, a table with opened bottles of liquor, and racks of new 10.Deep branded clothing.

The man introduced himself to us and was named Rob. He really took the time to make us feel comfortable. Rob mentioned that this was not the first time in which he had customers enter the 10.Deep headquarters instead of the retail store, and for us not to feel embarrassed. He then invited us to sit down and chatted with us a bit, enhancing our overall experience. He could have simply informed us that this was not the retail store, and led us out. But instead, he asked us where we were from, and after letting him know that we were from Austin, he quickly mentioned other street wear clothing stores that he enjoyed visiting there. He told us other various locations in New York in which we could purchase 10.Deep clothing and said that he appreciated us for stopping by. He then gave us two Kid Cudi mix tapes and 10.Deep sticker labels so that we would not leave empty handed. While it was nice to receive the mix tape and sticker labels free of charge, the physical materials did not matter as much as the sentimental gesture that was expressed. I will honestly admit though that I am a Kid Cudi fan, and that this experience may have been enhanced by my one degree of separation from him.

(Side note on Kid Cudi: Kid Cudi modeled clothes for the 10.Deep lookbook while pursuing a rapping career. 10.Deep supported him by branding his mix tape and helped to push the promotion of Kid Cudi as an upcoming new hip hop artist.)

The manner in which I experienced the “10.Deep” brand was an unexpected one. Rather than ending up in a retail store, I ended up at the 10.Deep headquarters. The exceptional customer service that I received exceeded my expectations and ultimately led to a particularly meaningful customer experience for me. From a strategic experiential marketing perspective, this was the breakdown of my experience:

1) Sense

From my personal experience with 10.Deep, SENSE marketing played a key role. In terms of sight, I was able to clearly see that attention to detail was something important to 10.Deep (perhaps even more so because they are a clothing company and exposure is inevitable). The brand has a simple yet memorable logo design with the Roman numeral “X” incorporated into the zero in the number ten, as well as their signature trademarked brass knuckles. Physically being in the headquarters took my senses to a whole new level. Upon walking in, I was immediately able to sense the laid-back atmosphere, see some of the creative processes taking place, smell the sawdust from the construction and hear the sound of hip hop music playing in the background.

2) Feel

FEEL marketing appeals to customers’ inner feelings and emotions. To sum up my 10.Deep experience in one word, I would say that this specific customer experience made me feel valued.  Rob really took time out of his day to sit down and get to know Patrick and me a little better. As a consumer, our overall aim is to obtain a feeling of appreciation and sense of importance from a brand – to feel that we really matter. 10.Deep successfully made that happen and created an affective experience resulting in a positive mood and strong emotion from both Patrick and me.

3) Think

Through this experience, I think that 10.Deep really knows how to cater to their customers. As a street wear clothing brand, it is essential for there to be a connection between the brand and its customers. Clothing is visual to the public, and thus portrays somewhat of an identity on that specific consumer to those around them. Good companies appeal to the intellect and 10.Deep strives to achieve this in their consumers by relaying the important message of individual strength and power. This experience really made me think about the impact that branded clothing can have on an individual and even take that one step further in examining how brand meaning acts as a key role for consumers.

4) Act

10.Deep aims to affect a certain lifestyle interaction with its consumers. Being a street wear clothing label, yet having a presence in the music industry as well really allows its customers to engage with 10.Deep on a more interactive level. ACT marketing aims to affect bodily experience, lifestyles, and interactions. 10.Deep successfully differentiates themselves by being more than just a clothing label. Their involvement in the music community provides another connection for me, as well as other consumers, to actively form a closer relationship with the brand.

5) Relate

This section of RELATE marketing appeals to the individual’s desire for self-improvement, positive perception among peers, and association within a larger social group. 10.Deep’s motto of self-empowerment is a subject relatable and relevant to almost everyone. Having such a positive and personal customer experience with 10.Deep really made me feel relatable to others who wear their clothing because we share the same values for a deeper understanding of self.