Behavioral targeting: Innovative marketing or invasion of privacy?

In the quest to get more targeted with advertising messages, behavioral targeting seems like the answer to many frustrated marketers’ prayers. Some consumer groups disagree, though, calling this new targeting method more like Big Brother than the next Big Idea.

Behavioral targeting mediums track consumers’ habits and then offer advertisers the ability to serve up messages that correlate to these habits. Imagine that you are thinking of buying a new car. You fire up your computer, go online and start surfing websites with information about the car you are interested in buying. All of sudden you start seeing ads for car insurance. How did that insurance company know you were looking for a car? Well, little did you know you were leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for a behavioral targeting company to follow.

Most consumers don’t realize their online behavior can be tracked and used for marketing purposes. Needless to say, a fair number of them might be a bit uncomfortable knowing their habits are being cataloged.

Behavioral targeting is now getting even closer to home. Not only are behaviorally-based ads being served up on your Facebook page and in your e-mail, banks are now offering advertisers the ability to target their customers based on their purchasing habits. The next time you use your debit card at McDonald’s, don’t be surprised to see a coupon for the McRib the next time you log on to your online banking page.

How far behavioral targeting will go before consumers or the government takes a hard look at the privacy issue remains to be seen. For now it offers marketers a great way to get more specific with their ad messages and their target markets.
And, hey, if you can save a buck on your next drive thru order, who’s complaining?

American consumers are anything but normal.

After a decade of wondering, marketers will finally get a close-up look at today’s consumers when the decennial Census is released next year. Maybe it’s not as great a mystery as the balloon boy, though. Preliminary data has leaked out and the results are… well… predictably abnormal.

Abnormal is bad news for advertisers looking to reach the average consumer. If you are one of these, don’t despair. You are not alone. Many businesses have invested their advertising budgets in reaching that middle-of-the-road consumer, married, two kids, average house, average job, vacations once a year and buys toothpaste on a regular basis. The good news is they still buy toothpaste. The bad news is they are no longer anywhere near the middle of the road.

Ad Age’s sneak peak of the 2010 Census data reveals that the average American has been replaced by a multidimensional individual who is difficult to define under any one category.

What does your average American look like now?

Chances are he is not married with two kids. He’s more likely to have no children or be single. In fact, the census now has 14 choices Americans can select from to define their household including multigenerational and blended families.

He is likely to be a minority. While white, non-Hispanics constitute 80 percent of people 65 and older, this percentage drops to 54 among Americans 18 and younger.

He lives in the South or the West or is thinking of moving there. Over the past decade, 85 percent of the nation’s population growth has occurred in the South and West.

Marketers looking for middle America will have to start looking elsewhere. Your average consumer is nowhere to be found. Perhaps this is a good thing. Who wants to be average anyway?