Is personalization really personal?

From: Tim Lee <TLee_at_webcmo.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 02:42:03 -0500 (CDT)

One to one marketing is hot. Personalization -- an
application of one to one marketing -- is hotter. But nobody
yet asks a simple question: IS PERSONALIZATION REALLY
PERSONAL?

Let me use Amazon.com's book recommendation system -- a well
known example of personalization -- to answer this question.

Basically this famous recommendation system works in this
way: when you bought a book, it tells you what other books
the other people, who bought the same book as you just
bought, have also bought. People call this system as
personalization.

Is this system really personal?

The fundamental assumption behind one to one marketing and
personalization is: every customer is different. Therefore,
you should treat them differently. Or in other words,
personally.

What is the assumption behind this book recommendation
system? Well, I believe most people have already realized
the difference. The assumption behind this system is: YOU
ARE AS THE SAME AS ALL OTHER PEOPLE. Once you bought a book,
you are categorized as the people who bought that book. If
many people in this group also bought another book, you are
automatically assumed to be likely to buy that book.

You have no personal characteristics in this personalization
system.

Personalization is really not personal. It is a typical
segmentation solution. This is also an excellent example to
illustrate why one to one marketing doesn't work. One to one
marketing and personalization advocators claim that one to
one marketing is a better solution. But no matter how hard
they have tried, they have to use the segmentation concept
to solve the problems finally.

I hope next time before anybody writes or publishes an
article about personalization, implements or helps other
implement personalization, he/she needs to understand what
personalization really means.

Thanks!

Tim Lee
Editor - Journal of Web Marketing Research
http://www.WebCMO.com
Innovations in web marketing research & strategies


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Received on Mon Jul 19 1999 - 07:33:09 CDT