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Starting with Photoshoppers who possess the tools to make any individual appear as though they’ve scaled Everest, to Snapchat’s animal filters that encourage even the less tech-savvy to look like Peter Rabbit, we’ve come a long way from the days of studio shots.
There have been multiple studies conducted that look into the presumed narcissistic behaviour of individuals and their smartphones and a lot of them have concluded that an alternate version of themselves is now a staple. In a nutshell, we’ve got a new marketing tool – Individualization. I’ve always reiterated that we’re storytellers. This doesn’t stem from my bookworm tendencies, but from the fact that we are constantly telling tales of glory for those we represent. Now we must accept the invite to an ironically personalized web space, which means we’re in the era of individualized marketing to a mass audience.
Gone are the days of business models led by Kotler. We’ve evolved and, while we are inspired by those theories, it’s time to personalize customer experiences through smartphones. With the availability of multiple data-gathering platforms, we’ve established sources and now it’s about relevant implementation. There’s a radical change to the business models we have all known and implemented.
In the less tech-savvy days, (not many moons ago), a campaign’s success rate was determined by the change in the brand’s revenue. Personalization of content is a great tool – we can now reach out to the correct demographic in the location we prefer and analyse the impact of a campaign through those set of results.
The best part of personalized marketing techniques is that brands can use results to help modify their upcoming campaigns and implement a more targeted approach. For example, Coca Cola’s celebrated “Share a Coke” campaign drew global attention because of two main factors – they knew they wanted to target millennials and, in order to gain their support, they had to customize their product.
How do you customize a drink? Put your name on it.
The “Share a Coke” campaign received a tremendous response globally because it created one of the largest social media spill-over campaigns. Millennials would scout the bottle with their name on it or find a friend’s and tag them online, which created a ripple effect across the globe. The brand took it one step further and allowed customers to print their own labels – Genius!
Keeping in mind the recent onset of data protection laws, personalized marketing has now taken to the ‘interwebs’ and with each individual’s traceable digital footprint, the possibilities are endless.
While the world works on reducing their carbon footprint, let’s increase our online one, shall we?
Riya Vatnani is Account Manager at Cicero & Bernay Public Relations. An independent PR agency headquartered in Dubai and offering new-age public relations consultancy to the UAE and across the MENA region. | www.cbpr.me