Is Privacy a Roadblock to Mobile Personalization?
The trend toward portability continues to grow. There's no doubt that consumers will demand more mobile applications in the future. But is the system set up to meet customer needs?
A panel of mobile experts at the recent Consumer Electronics Show discussed that current privacy policies in place may actually be limiting the amount of personalization and relevance available within mobile networks. With most companies, the privacy policy is set by the content provider or the e-commerce site. In the mobile space, the telecom carriers control what goes out on their networks, and they've got very stringent guidelines.
The best bet when planning a mobile personalization strategy is to gain customers' trust, so they will want to opt-in to hear from you. It comes down to trust. go2 CEO and founder Lee Hancock implied that may not be that difficult, as long as content providers offer useful and valuable content in exchange for personal information. For instance, he said go2 has served millions of location-targeted ads, but that they have “such high value” for users, it’s not gotten a single privacy-related complaint stemming from them.
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Thanks Graham. I think a lot of mobile operators don't want to create the spam headache that overwhelmed the email space. An opt-in model with customer control (that fits within the engagement marketing frame) sounds like a good way to go.
Elisabeth
If we are to prevent a tragedy of the mobile marketing commons, privacy is a necessary barrier to mobile personalisation.
But Lee Hancock is right. Customers will accept mobile messages if they are engaging, or if there is a quid pro quo of free minutes, SMSes or other VAS.
Alan Moore of mobile advertising agency SMLXL describes engagement marketing at http://www.smlxtralarge.com/ .
Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant
Interim CRM Manager