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?