Big Brother or Personalization OR The Fine Line Between Creepy and Effective Marketing

Great summary on the fine line …

There’s a fine line between effective, personalized marketing and an eerie feeling that “big brother” is watching. Unfortunately, being creepy is one of the most common perils of data-driven marketing. In an online environment, retailers can observe every single nuance of an individual’s shopping experience.

On the one hand, there are obvious perks for doing so, including the fact that carefully tailored marketing experience can lead to cross-sell, upsell and retention opportunities. Personalization simply works — and in study after study, consumers say that they like it.

But marketers need to be careful. Because when personalization goes too far, it stops being helpful and just gets, well … creepy.

John Timmerman on The Line Between Creepy and Effective Marketing.