Mothers are getting savvier about what their data is worth to e-mail marketers. A new survey of 400 moms with children 12 and under by advertising agency Brunner found that they are willing to provide information about themselves via e-mail - and even about their children - if it means they will get more useful information and offers in return.
More than 60% of moms said they would provide information about themselves to a trusted brand if it meant they would receive more personalized content. Seven in 10 of these women even said they would share certain information about their children if it meant they could get more relevant e-mail offers from their preferred brands. For Brunner, the point was that these women are still connected to e-mail, giving brands the opportunity to build trust and stronger relationships with the individuals that control billions in annual household spending. (A separate study by Exact Target recently found that women are more receptive to e-mail marketing messages than men).
Marketing Your Own Data
It is also illustrative of another trend just started to emerge - the recognition that consumers shouldn't give away something so valuable as their data without something tangible in return. In other words, why should Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other ad businesses get all the rewards, the New York Times posed in an article looking at the business model of Bynamite. A start-up company based in San Francisco, Bynamite just introduced a downloadable plug-in for browsers that monitors what ad networks and e-commerce sites collect and assume to know about a user.
"What's intriguing about Bynamite," Randy Komisar, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, "is its emphasis on privacy as revolving around choice and ownership of data, and ultimately a notion of an exchange of value." (via the Times). Indeed, Ginsu Yoon, a co-founder of the company predicts that people will eventually be able to use their interests as virtual currency, calling the idea a "consumer’s preference wallet."
Giving It Away
Still, though, despite the statistics - in the form of Brunner's survey - and the emergence of such sites as Bynamite that support the notion that consumers want something in exchange for their data, the larger trend is still for consumers to happily give it all up for free. One only has to look at the success of Blippy, a social network that lets people share information about their purchases. It now can troll users' Gmail accounts for purchase data - something that would should give at least some pause, given the accidental publishing of five of its customers' credit card numbers in April.
