Marketers overestimate consumers’ attitude to data

There is a clear gap between how marketers think consumers view data and their true feelings, which if not addressed ahead of the introduction of the new data law in 2018 could be bad for business.

Marketers are facing a continuous struggle with consumers’ perception of data, as new research reveals 71% believe brands with access to their personal data are using it unethically.
The report, which surveyed more than 34,000 people worldwide, reveals 78% of the public also view the threat of negative media coverage as an insufficient deterrent to prevent businesses from misusing personal data.

Brands, therefore, are at severe risk of overestimating consumers’ trust in and willingness to adopt ‘predictive technologies’, according to the report by Edelman and The University of Cambridge Psychometrics Centre, shown exclusively to Marketing Week.
The term ‘predictive technologies’ refers to services, analytical techniques, machine-learning algorithms and other tools capable of discovering and analysing patterns in data to predict future behaviour on the basis of past behaviour.

Concerns over data use are universal across gender, nationality and personality types. The report suggests low levels of consumer trust stem from wider privacy concerns that touch all areas of life, not only those within the remit of the study.
More than half (58%) of respondents say they have not used a digital service because of privacy concerns, which is driving decision making around which apps to download, which email addresses to share and which social networking sites to use to log in to other sites.
“If we don’t explain to customers and readers why we want to use data and what we are going to do with it, there is no reason why they should share it,” warns Julia Porter, Guardian News & Media’s director of consumer revenues.

“If you do explain, you are better able to gain people’s trust and they are more likely to share data. There is a virtuous circle in being open and transparent about what you are going to do with the data and people feeling able to share it.”
Jonathan Hargreaves, global vice-chair of Edelman’s technology practice echoes Porter’s views. He says: “Many companies are beginning to talk about these things and adopt these technologies but nobody has transparently [explained this] to the end user. A relationship [is required to articulate] what you give back to people in data. You need an explanation of what you are doing to make that deal work.”
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Source: http://www.marketingweek.com 

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