Blog 5 - Ethics of Insights

In thinking about personal privacy in the digital world, I can't help but feel a combination of wonderment and disbelief coupled with a sense that Big Brother is watching.  As a marketer, I find myself reveling in the amount of data that is available to be analyzed, explored, and scrutinized. Yet as just a normal person, I admit that at times I feel a bit creeped out.  Google clearly knows that I am interested in hiking Machu Picchu, because an ad or announcement about it comes up every time I open my browser.  Google also knows where to find my LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, businesses, videos and images with one easy search... Which means my potential employers, suitors, employees, classmates, colleagues, old boyfriends, and potential stalkers all have access to this too.  (Did I mention creepy?!)

I manage to rationalize this creepy feeling by reminding myself that I am to a large extent entirely in control of this information.  I manually created an account for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. I write my thoughts for all to see online, and I don't set the privacy settings to block my thoughts from the world. I used to work as a public relations director, so my name comes up in press releases dating back from 2003 - releases that I deliberately released online through PRNewsire.com.  In all of these examples, I was in control of my own name. Had I not gone through the exercise of putting myself out to the world via the internet, Google would never had this information.  With that in mind, I know that I had control over this data; in turn, I don't feel like I willingly gave up my right to privacy.

I am always amazed at the outcry against Facebook about privacy issues.  Do people forget that this is a 100% free tool? One that costs nothing to the consumer, and yet still has attached expectations of privacy and ethical conduct.  Must we remind people that this application is free? No one is forcing anyone else to get on Facebook and create an account. This is a service, or means of entertainment, that we expect for free. 

However, after reading the article "Apple, Google Collect User Data," I feel less in control than ever before.  When I signed up for my Samsung Epic smartphone, I was under the impression that I was in control of the data my phone could collect, if it collected any at all.  Learning that I was wrong was a bit distressing for me, as it makes me admit that I am not in control as I like to think.  While features such as accurate traffic maps, local-business lookups, and optimized network routing all sound good, I don't believe those features are worth the costs of being 100% traceable by carrying a smartphone.  The best analogy I can think of is that I bought a diary, and the company that made the book is tracking what I write.  I expected to be tracked online; I didn't expect to be tracked by carrying a device that seems detached from the internet.  Little did I know!

I do believe that Apple & Google have since been forced to turn off these features.  While the United States is a bit more tolerant about privacy issues, parts of the world like the European Union have much less tolerance.  Still - it takes legal action - or very public outcry - to make companies step away from the ever-so-gray line of what is okay and not okay when it comes to privacy.  There are plenty of companies that I am sure do the same amount of tracking, but we just don't know about it.  This brings to mind the recent exposé on Target's data collection and analytics department and the amount of information they have about their customers.  Target uses such sophisticated analytics and algorithms that it can predict if a customer is pregnant down to the particular trimester that she is in. Once people started to realize that, they were understandably creeped out and Target had to revamp its marketing efforts to be more discrete. This didn't stop their work; it only made it that more inauspicious.

In the article "A Web Pioneer Profiles Users by Name," online tracking company Rapleaf is able to provide detailed information about internet users to companies and individuals willing to buy the data.
"The company says people can permanently opt out of its services at RapLeaf.com," quotes the article. My question is - how can I person opt out of a "service" that they don't know they are getting.  I am really curious how any company official can say that with a straight face.  Companies are clearly in a "I'd rather ask for forgiveness than permission" mode, and will conduct their business in a way that reaps the most competitive advantage and profits for as long as they legally and publicly can get away with.  

I don't believe there is a definitive right or wrong answer for marketers when it comes to the question "how far is too far?" and "how much is too much?" We have to take some responsibility as individuals to manager our own behavior.  If we don't want companies to track what we buy, then we shouldn't use credit cards or checks. If we don't want people to track our online activity, then we shouldn't go online. If we don't want to be geographically tracked, then we shouldn't use a cell phone. While all of these suggestions probably sound ridiculous in today's modern society, they are all still possible plans of avoiding analysis by a multitude of companies and marketers.   And if we chose to ignore those options, then we have to take a certain amount of responsibility for our actions.  I believe that marketers will forever be pushing the ethical line and it will be harder than ever to stop them.  

On a personal note, Google sure is making me more and more motivated to head to Peru! In a strange way, I feel like it is holding me accountable to go hike Machu Picchu, and for that I am alright!

Blog 5 - Ethics of Insights - Due 11-Apr

For your 5th blog, I'd really like to read your views about personal privacy in this digital world.  This is an especially important topic for marketers to consider since we are most often, now, the ones who are asking for, using, and, ultimately, responsible for people's (including our customer's) data.  

I've decided to leave this topic very broad so that you can write on whatever strikes your interest.  The constraint I will add is that you will need to reference one or both of the articles on this topic (I added another article to Blackboard titled, "A Web Pioneer Profiles Users by Name," in addition to the article on Apple & Google tracking users on mobile devices).  Again, you only need to reference at least one of those in your response.  

The problem for me is that I don't believe enough marketers have thought enough about this topic so that they understand their ethical boundaries in their own marketing practices.  Read and give it some thought before you start writing (or at least come back to the blog at least a second time to make it better).  I'm so curious to read where you all fall on this issue.

Creativity

*Shall I start with some irony? I can't think of a creative title for my post on creativity. Perhaps I need to take a long shower. ;)

Being an only child, I feel like I had to learn creativity from an early age. I had (and still have) a desire to be constantly entertained or engaged, so my mother was constantly thinking up ideas to help keep me occupies. Books, puzzles, tea sets, microscopes, games, projects, art, etc... I was a needy kid! However, I think this really helped build my creativity from the get-go. I was constantly being exposed to something new, and largely had to take full responsibility for having a good time in the process.

In elementary school, I attended a "gifted & talented program"called REACH. My favorite part of the program, in addition to getting to leave my regular school once a week, was "Right Hemisphere." The teacher turned off the lights and let us lay down and close our eyes as she read us a story or described a situation. Then, when we were ready, we'd get up and create some type of art project that represented what we had experienced. Talk about creativity overload! Plus, this was something I could excel at and that pretty much sealed the deal for me + creativity. (To demonstrate contract, me + sports = fail.)

Throughout school, I was happy to take on any type of art, music, or writing project - anything where I could do something outside the norm. Ironically, once I got to college, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. After spending two years as a file clerk at a law firm, it should come as no surprise that I switched my major to marketing instead of pre-law.

In my professional career, I rely on my creativity for everything I do. I am perfectly accepting of my lack of mathematical skills because I know I can bring something different to the table.  (This has to be true,  otherwise I'm totally unsure how I ended up with a consulting internship.)  This leads me to my next point, which is organizational creativity. While I absolutely feel that individuals are capable of being creative, I more so feel that groups within organizations are also capable of being creative - that is given the right environment for the right goal. 

When one typically thinks of the right environment, I'd imagine a mental picture of a creative space with plenty of natural light, and lacking cube-farms. However, thinking about the movie "Office Space," creativity thrived in this environment! It was just not the type of creativity that management would want. (Or that was legal, of course.)  But for the "right" type of creativity, it certainly helps to have environments that foster group creativity.  Open spaces for meetings, good communication channels, etc... these are all helpful to generate the right mentality.  However, it is the group itself that ultimately will produce creativity. 

In my experience, groups with diverse backgrounds, who have been exposed to things outside the issue they are trying to solve, have been more effective.  In my past job as the marketing director at a disaster restoration company, I had to work with groups every week to solve problems and create marketing initiatives. We worked best when we left the office (which had no windows and was located in a warehouse) and essentially got away from our workplace.  We made sure to remain open to each other's ideas - being respectful - and as a group, we came up with some really cool initiatives.  When we were forced to stay in the office and brainstorm under the eye of our founders, creativity was always stifled.

My own biggest takeaway from working with groups in various organizations was that one of the biggest driving factors to creativity was the openness of the rest of the organization. When I had bosses that encouraged new and innovative ideas, the better the ideas where. When I had bosses that didn't want creativity, I felt unmotivated and stifled.

I found Jonah Lehrer's "How to be Creative" article very interesting.  While of course I don't have any scientific expertise, everything that he said seemed reasonable to me.  I agreed with the way he describes different types of creative problems and processes, especially based on my own experiences. I definitely related to the "feelings of knowing" regarding coming up with a solution.  It never occurred to me to differentiate whether I need to keep working at an idea or to step away, but I'm looking forward to trying this out! I also am interested to try and recognize where I stand in the "ability to calculate progress" arena that Lehrer references.  I worry that we should just trust ourselves to know where we stand in the process and how to approach it without experience. But, I think with adequate experience, we can train ourselves to recognize where we are and how to better attack a creative problem/process.

Another point I agreed with was Lehrer's recommendation to have people without implicit knowledge of a problem join in the problem solving process. I have personally witnessed outsiders bringing new ideas and thoughts that spurred creative solutions.  I also enjoyed his story about Yo Yo Mama playing an "unplayable" note on the cello. I truly believe that we are our own biggest boundaries. When we don't even think about what we are or aren't capable of, we can do so much more!

I wanted to add one more point based on our class discussion. I am a HUGE fan of improv classes! They very much help spur creativity because you learn the skill. Also, they teach you that it is okay to fail. I honestly feel that our creativity is hindered at work because we don't want to look stupid, or to fail. Improv helps teach that failing is totally normal - and in fact encouraged! So... a quick fix to generate some creativity - take an improv class. I highly recommend them.

Blog Post 4 Assignment - Due March 25th

For this blog, I would like for you to read one additional, more recent article about creativity.  There have been a number of assertions and many pages of research about creativity and there still seems to be a good bit of debate about what makes people and organizations more creative (and, then, assumedly, more innovative).  This latest article appeared in the Wall Street Journal just over a week ago and provides another take on the topic.  

How to be Creative by Jonah Leher (WSJ)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203370604577265632205015846.html

The response for this is a bit more open than the previous blog topics.  Overall, I want to hear your thoughts about creativity and innovation as an individual and within organizations.  Here are some questions you can consider, but you can address other issues related to this topic if you have other things to say on this.

1.  What are you personal experiences with individual creativity?  Have you had times when you felt especially creative or, even, especially uncreative?

2.  What are your personal experiences with organizational creativity?  Have you worked at companies that felt or behaved in ways that made them more creative or, even, especially uncreative?

3.  Do you think you, as an individual, are even capable of being creative by yourself?  And, better yet, do you think a group within an organization is capable of being creative?  

4.  What do you think about this article and the way this author describes different creative types of problems and, thus, different creative processes?  Should we trust ourselves just to know or sense when we need one type of approach versus another?

As always, please keep the blog guidelines in mind, which are posted in top right column of the page. (Minimum length: (compared to a Word doc) 1.5 pages, single-spaced, Times New-Roman, 1-inch margins (although your blog does not have to be formatted that way).)

Project Thoughts: Data Analytics: An Insight Powerhouse

I recently attended the CCIMS McCombs Marketing Conference and the opportunity to listen to Bob Johansen of the Institute for the Future speak about the future of marketing. He referenced a New York Times article called "How Companies Learn Your Secrets" by Charles Duhigg. The opening of the article was about Target using their complex data analytics to determine if their customers are pregnant.  I found this idea fascinating, so I pulled up the article as soon as we took a break. Consequently, the day's second panel was all about Data Analytics. I heard from experts at AMD, Dell, AT&T, and a small start-up making a go at synthesizing data into usable reports. It was fascinating to see how these companies relied on data to make decisions. (Being a go-by-the-gut type of person, I think researching examples of how data really can drive insights will help even out my marketing approaches!)

Having lived on the cusp of the digital era - and by that I mean that I first started playing the Oregon Trail on a big beige Apple desktop computer when I was in 6th grade - I often struggle with the amount of data I am giving out about myself.  As a marketer, I can appreciate the quest for companies to learn about me. However, as the consumer I don't feel quite right giving away all my secrets.

I find the topic of data analytics fascinating, and I certainly expect to use this type of information in my future career.  Some of the most interesting points of his article - which are a precurser to his book out February 28th called  "The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business" - include:

Almost every major retailer, from grocery chains to investment banks to the U.S. Postal Service, has a “predictive analytics” department devoted to understanding not just consumers’ shopping habits but also their personal habits, so as to more efficiently market to them. 

Chunking: that the brain converts a sequence of actions into an automatic routine, which thus decreases brain activity, and thus we think less and less. (Even if it looks like we are thinking more!)

The process within our brains that creates habits is a three-step loop. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic. The cue and reward become neurologically intertwined until a sense of craving emerges. 

Consumers going through major life events often don’t notice, or care, that their shopping habits have shifted, but retailers notice, and they care quite a bit. At those unique moments, Andreasen wrote, customers are “vulnerable to intervention by marketers.” In other words, a precisely timed advertisement, sent to a recent divorcee or new homebuyer, can change someone’s shopping patterns for years. 

I love the idea of the cue-routine-reward calculator from a marketer's perspective, but it is also scary how susceptible to marketing I (and we) are!  Duhigg goes on to talk about Target's targeted coupon circulars, sent to pregnant women but disguised as a normal ad. People were started to get spooked - understandably - so Target had to pull back and disguise how intelligent they were with their data.

In a time where we give up information so willingly, and usually without thinking, it is without doubt that corporations know way more about us than we would ever willingly tell them - if we had thought about it.  As much a people are afraid about Google knowing what they are searching for, or Facebook knowing what they are doing - they have been providing similar information to retailers, credit card companies, banks, etc. for years. I believe it will be a fascinating study to see what other interesting trends in data analytics are surfacing.  

Perhaps I can even do a report on Duhigg's book as well, although the gist of it seems to be more about how people form habits, and how marketers use these habits to better reach consumers. I find it all fascinating!

Looking forward to your thoughts, Professor Walls!

Blog Post 3 Assignment - Due February 24

This next blog is an opportunity for you to explore your paper topic. This is not a final contract on your topic - you can certainly change your topic after you right this. The whole point of this blog is to explore the topic enough so that you and I feel comfortable about your ability to create a full paper out of it. Here is what I would like to see included:

- Idea for the topic, fleshed out as much as possible - this can also include all the questions you have about the topic at this point. Use the blog as a brainstorming session for yourself to get your ideas out there and make this a first attempt at organizing your thoughts around the topic.

- Why is this topic interesting to you? Remember: this is a big goal for the assignment!

- What is the connection to the gathering and identification of customer insights and/or the design of valuable customer experiences? (at least, as you see it right now)

- Cite and briefly describe at least one article that is related to your topic (this can be either an academic article or trade article, at this point). Do your best to find an article that might be a central source or guidepost for your paper.

Do not forget the minimum length guidelines. Also, try NOT to write in sentence fragments, although a list here and there is fine.

I will be reading all of these posts so that I can provide feedback on what you have thus far.

Have fun with it!

Thoughts on Social Media

Social media has emerged as one of the hottest marketing trends of the past ten years, dominating marketing conversations and often times leaving marketers scratching their heads.  While social media is clearly an imperative part of one's marketing strategy, it is not the end-all be-all holy grail solution to marketing.  Social media is an effective means of communicating to the world, but marketers must utilize social media as a two-way street in order to gain the most benefit.

Today, social media comes in nearly countless forms. Popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, FlickR, Pinterest, Google Places, Yelp, and FourSquare... just to name a few. New platforms are born every day, and marketers must scrutinize the platform to ensure it fits into the marketing strategy of the company.

Marketers use social media to accomplish a number of goals.  I believe the most common goal is to raise awareness about a company through a cheap, easy, and instant channel.  Social media content serves a number of purposes through this goal - it helps keep top of mind mentality in a customer's mind while catering that mentality with particular messages.  Social media is also used for publicity and also is put in place for the coolness factor.  Consumers look to social media to get more information about a company or product, and they usually make judgements about a company based on the amount of participation within certain platforms.  One of the most important goals for social media is to drive conversations with customers.  Social media should engage customers and be relationships focused in order to be lasting and successful. Customers certainly view interactions as a relationships, so marketers must be diligent to keep that relationship strong and relevant.   Social media is also a measure of a company's performance and often a great source of feedback.  Yet another goal of social media is to increase a company's SEO (search engine optimization.) The more places a company shows up on the internet will often lead to higher rankings in searches.

Depending on the size and needs of a company, social media teams can be hired or outsourced. Their roles are to manage the company reputation, respond to posts/comments/feedback, demonstrate a pro-activeness in engaging with customers, and creating a relationship with customers.

As a marketer, I want to know the "who/what/when/where/why/how" about my customer. To be specific, I will use my own business as an example. I can gather this through traditional means such as focus groups, observation, purchase behaviors, feedback forms, etc... Or I can gather it pretty quickly via social media.  By "who," I mean who are the people that are connecting with my company.  I want to know demographics of people interested in my company: where are they from, what do they do, do they typically buy my type of product, how old are they, what hobbies do they have, etc. This information is important when I think about segmenting, targeting, and positioning my products.  Next is the "what," meaning what messages are they saying through social media.  The what is particularly important when I am looking for feedback, response, insights, and opinions.  The "when" of when are potential customers interacting with my company is also important. Are they frequently interacting, or did they do it in response to something else. "Where" is also important - are social media users interacting while they are at work, at home during more leisurely time, while waiting in line at the grocery store, etc. I believe the "where" component not only connects places and influences with my company, but also shows how truly engaged they are with my social media content. "Why" is one of the most important pieces of information I want to know, as it shows a deeper insight into the reason someone is connecting with my company.  Finally, "how" answers the questions of what platforms they are using, the means in which they found my company, and any additional behavioral insights that help me better understand the potential customer.

When I consider the information about my customers that I want to gather from social media, the most important things are customer interactions and customer feedback.  Customer interactions show how engaged individual people are with my company over social media - this is important because it demonstrates how relevant my company is in the scheme of their online attention and shows whether or not they care enough about my company to be engaged.  Customer feedback helps me determine a number of things. Some feedback can help demonstrate where I am efficient and inefficient along the value chain. For instance "you guys take forever to ship" and "you never have my size" are good operational indicators.  Obviously, I prefer the more positive feedback, but I think the former is more productive.  I also use customer feedback to learn things about my product I didn't know, such as different uses and applications.  For instance, I learned that my cleaning wipes are great to clean oven grease.  The customer interactions and feedback are great indicators of engagement and activity.

One of the hardest parts of utilizing social media is collecting and analyzing the desired information from users.  In order to gather data in a way that is insightful and meaningful, marketers should incorporate metrics into their social media marketing plan.  Without them, there is often too much data to analyze and the process can be overwhelming. There are actually a number of tools that can help, such as Google Analytics, Google Reader, Facebook Analytics, Bazaarvoice, Spredfast, etc.  These tools help aggregate data and help a marketer search for trends and gain insights. 

Social media is a powerful marketing tool, and it can do amazing things for a company.  However, marketers must be cognizant that social media is a two-way conversation in which the response from users and customers is and equally important part to the content sent out by a company.