Targeted marketing is a form of marketing that uses information about your lifestyle, demographics, and other characteristics to market specific products or services to you.
As people become more aware of privacy laws and the large impact targeted marketing can have on personal privacy and spending, it is becoming more difficult to target specific people groups with ads.
Companies are required by law to collect personal information to meet legal requirements such as paying taxes. Otherwise, they are not allowed to collect personal information for any other reasons except for targeting advertising.
Ads are more likely to be non-personalized now due to laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This regulation was put into place in May of 2018 and enforced in November of that year by the European Union (EU) member states. It gives citizens of the EU greater control over their personal data and how it is used by others.
Marketers know very well how to influence your spending habits. They do this by targeting you with ads and product promotions.
Ads are used on social media, in magazines and newspapers, on TV and radio, and across various digital platforms. How often you see an ad for a product depends on how much that company is willing to pay to put their ad in that medium.
For example, Nike probably pays more to have its ads appear on the radio or TV than other companies, so you see more Nike ads during radio and TV shows than other brands.
In addition to advertising your products, marketers create “targets” for their advertisements. These targets are defined demographic groups that the company wants to reach and convince to buy their product.
They do this by collecting data about these groups (such as age, race, gender, etc.) and using that information to target which people they want to see their ads.
Marketers spend a lot of time and money figuring out how to influence your buying habits.
They study your buying habits and trends to figure out what kinds of products they should advertise. They also hire research firms that use psychology to their advantage.
For example, a marketing firm might find that most people who shop at a particular store also tend to shop at another store. So, they would market the opposite store as a way to get people to shop at their store.
Marketing doesn’t happen overnight, either. It’s an ongoing process that relies on statistics and trends to succeed. As time goes on and more trends are discovered, the market becomes more educated. This makes it harder for marketers to influence people, which is why they constantly have to re-educate people about their products.
The hardest people to influence are those that are educated about marketing strategies. Still, there are some ways to turn down the noise and focus on you.
Marketers are very savvy about the ways you spend, what influences your spending decisions, and how they can use that information to their advantage.
For example, if a market researcher finds that people with children spend more money on groceries than people without children, that information is going to be used.
Companies will create marketing campaigns specifically targeting parents to get them to spend money on their products. This is not said in a bad way, it’s just an observation.
Companies know that parents are busy and have many demands on their time and attention. As a result, they invest in advertising through numerous channels so that parents will notice and purchase their products.
However, marketers does not only identify weaknesses related to spending habits. Other weaknesses that trigger spending include feelings such as insecurity or frustration. Companies try to tap into these feelings as well when creating ads or marketing campaigns.
Marketers watch how you spend your money very closely. Not only do they watch how you spend in general, but also how you spend compared to others.
They track your gender, race, and income level as well as other demographics. This is because they have products targeted to these groups and wants to sell as many of their products as possible.
For example, a higher-priced product will be advertised to people with higher incomes. A discounted product will be marketed to people who are looking for a deal.
Marketers also look at your shopping history. If you always buy one brand of dish soap every week, then they will not market another dish soap to you. They will stay on track with marketing their products to people who do not already buy from them.
Targeted marketing uses your data to determine your spending habits. They know what products you buy and how much you spend on them.
They also know when you are most susceptible to spending. For example, they know that everyone goes shopping right before Christmas, and they target their ads accordingly.
They track the times of year when people buy certain things and prepare ads targeted to those times. For example, they know people buy new shoes in the spring, so they advertise their shoe sales then.
Because they target ads based on your personal information and past spending habits, it can be hard to avoid their advertisements. Even if you don’t go shopping at all, they will still find other ways to get your attention and get you to spend money on their products.
Marketers know that buyers have a mentality that influences their spending habits. For example, people who are in the market for a car want to feel like they got a good deal.
They want to know they got the most value for their money and that they spent enough to feel good about it.
Car marketers use many different strategies to influence this feeling of satisfaction with spending. Some use higher prices to make others look cheaper, some use lower prices to make cars look like a good value, and some have sales often to create the feeling of getting a good deal.
Marketers also work to create feelings like urgency or lack of choice so that people feel like they need to purchase something or risk missing out. These feelings also help drive spending up, which is what the buyer wants to feel like they got what they needed.
As mentioned before, marketing companies get their money by providing advertisers with the targeted information about consumers they need to sell their products.
This is done by collecting data on consumers through a variety of ways. The most prevalent way is through online tracking.
Almost every browser has a service called Google Chrome which has an feature called Chrome Sync that automatically downloads your settings and preferences from one device to another.
This includes your bookmarks, search settings, and favorite sites which are all forms of data that give information about you as a consumer.
As you browse the web, you also leave digital tracks like how long you stay on a particular website, what products or services you look at, and what kinds of things interest you. All of this information is collected and sold to advertisers to help them target their ads to you.
Targeted marketing relies heavily on collecting and using personal information about consumers. Companies use this information to understand your spending habits, target products to you, and influence how and when you spend your money.
For example, if a clothing store knows that you are in the market for a new shirt because you visited their website yesterday, they can offer a sale on shirts today via their advertising sites.
They can also target individuals with lower incomes or those that are looking for jobs due to the use of ad-targeting. This is because they can track whether or not you make purchases or whether your income changes due to the way you use their services.
Companies also know how much money you spend on items and what your spending patterns are. They can then use this information to target competitive prices towards you based on what items cost you money-wise.
