I always feel like I’m straddling both sides of the marketing equation. Because I’m a consumer, too, and often things hit me like a consumer, not an advertising copywriter.
The increasing ability of marketers to collect reams of information is particularly concerning to me. Not because they can, but because they simply don’t know what to do with all the information and can’t be trusted to use it wisely.
Most marketers, however, don’t employ the human intelligence portion that makes data collection a truly remarkable tool. The reality is marketers will always default to whatever’s easiest. Right now, collecting vast amounts of information that never reaches human eyeballs is the cheaper, efficient way to go. It’s always better to abdicate responsibility when information is used maliciously.
It would take an actual movement, not some BS marketing movement, for consumers to rise up and say, “We don’t want this intrusiveness.” I’m not holding my breath on that. As a society, we trade our personal information for convenience every day. Consider it the Terms and Conditions of living a modern life.
It’s the subject of my latest column on Talent Zoo.
