Author: Jerri-Lynn Scofield, he has served as a securities lawyer and derivatives trader. She is currently writing a book about textile craftsmen.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the company is working to collect your personal data after the enactment of privacy laws in California and Europe, Apple’s new policy on how to track its users, and Google’s upcoming similar changes (see Wall Street Journal, Big technology privacy pushes companies to collect customer data).

For a long time, data collection has been a priority because companies believe it allows them to target advertising more effectively. These major changes in government and technology have prompted companies to step up their efforts to allow you to “voluntarily” hand over your data. According to the Wall Street Journal:

Therefore, brands are deploying a series of strategies to convince users to give data to the brand itself-loyalty programs, sweepstakes, newsletters, quizzes, polls and QR codes, the pixelated black and white that are ubiquitous during the pandemic Square.

Avocados From Mexico, a non-profit marketing organization representing avocado growers and packers, encourages people to submit grocery receipts to earn points that can be redeemed for avocado-themed sportswear.

It also held a race to win the truck. When entering, consumers scan the QR code on the display in the store and enter their name, birthday, email, and phone number.

Avocado Group Marketing Vice President Ivonne Kinser said: “We have a limited window to solve this problem, and everyone is scrambling to do so.” It has successfully captured approximately 50 million device IDs (numbers associated with mobile devices) and is working to associate them with names and email addresses. The group plans to use customer information for advertising targeting and make its advertisements more relevant to customers.

Collecting data is expensive and requires sophisticated software and data science expertise. In addition, the database the company is building is insignificant compared to the usual database already assembled by large tech suspects. This means that, at least in the short term, the company will still be forced to advertise on Amazon, Facebook, and Google to take advantage of its superior database.

The Wall Street Journal provides a glimpse of how the company persuaded you to hand over your data:

Molson conducted more than 300 data collections this year, including sweepstakes and competitions held in bars across the country.Many customers who signed up for the competition agreed Let brewers store their information And use it for marketing purposes.

“You may think this is a bad thing. For example, we are trying to get people’s information, but in fact people have no problem sharing this information because they also benefit from it,” said Sofia Kluch, the global vice president of marketing for the Miller family brand. .

The Milwaukee-based beer manufacturer currently has more than 1 million customer profiles and expressed hopes to increase this number to at least 13 million by 2025.

Now, I admit that I occasionally provide some of my own data when requested by the company. And I noticed that unless people make all purchases in cash and avoid all digital and online transactions, people must accept the data being generated and someone will seek to use it. On the Internet, when I want to get discounts and promotional notices through some of the professional websites I visit frequently, I succumb to the company’s requirements for data. However, it does not say that the data I provide must be complete-I usually skip including my date of birth, so far, this has not prevented registration. For that matter, it’s not accurate—at least in a way the company might like. I don’t always provide my correct name, but instead register as one of my many incarnations. If my experience is close to normal, it means that the company is collecting corrupt and inaccurate data. However, for advertising purposes, I am not sure how important this is.

In any case, these small clips are not what the company is looking for. I am not a habitual smartphone user. For a long time, I only relied on dumb phones to make calls and occasionally text messages. Now that the pandemic keeps me stuck in the United States, I have purchased a basic prepaid smartphone. But I only use it for calls. There is no application. No email. Don’t text me. I don’t read them, and certainly don’t reply. I do engage in online transactions, but as before, any transaction can only be done through my laptop. Therefore, no smartphone will collect digital records of the stores I personally visit or the transactions I participated in.

I learned from WSK that my experience is far from normal:

The company does not just focus on some personal details. Many people’s goal is to record most of their interactions with their customers, fulfilling the so-called “golden record.”

Such high-quality customer records may include dozens or even hundreds of data points, including the locations of the stores people visit, the goods they usually buy, their spending, and their behavior on the company’s website.

This type of information not only helps in online advertising positioning, but also allows brands to personalize other parts of their marketing, starting with the offers they send to people, and showing products to customers online.

Lest you think I sound a little smug and out of touch, I know that I am not completely free from the control of the company’s marketers, because I am a member of many loyalty programs, mainly related to travel. In fact, I have to do an inevitable warp-knitted LA later this month, I will use airmail to do this, and use the benefits of the loyalty program to stay in a hotel. But long before the Internet and online transactions became such a big phenomenon, I belonged to this type of project. Seeing that the company is now slicing and dicing my data and manipulating my length has given me a better understanding of what is happening-and a determination not to share details about myself. Why should I help the company circumvent data protection laws? According to the Wall Street Journal;

Companies in the retail, travel, and hospitality industries are in a good position to collect data because they deal directly with consumers. Many of these companies have long invested in loyalty programs that provide benefits such as fare discounts or hotel room upgrades, and have established customer databases for personalized marketing.

The company said that the restaurant chain Chili’s Grill & Bar has about 9 million active loyal members, and its records contain about 50 different information, including the number of times a person has ordered certain foods, such as burgers, fajitas, ribs or children’s meals. Chili’s also has some emails, phone numbers, and purchase history of 50 million inactive loyalty member customers, which can be used for advertising targeting.

In an example of how data can help customize messages, an ad sent to someone who regularly orders appetizers might say: “Come and find a free app,” said Michael Breed, Chili’s senior vice president of marketing. Brink International company He believes that the customer data stored by the chain can help avoid the major impact of Apple’s policy changes.

Some of these efforts are simply creepy:

Some retailers who saw a surge in online sales in the early stages of the pandemic have stepped up their data collection. Chris Chapo, former vice president of senior analytics at marketing technology company Amperity, said: “It allows the company to learn more about you in a very natural way.”

In 2020, Dick’s sporting goods company Added 8.5 million new loyalty program members or athletes, as it said. The company has more than 20 million loyal members.

Dick’s loyalty member profile can contain up to 325 data points and customer characteristics. These include members’ buying behavior, whether they have children, what attracts their attention on the website, how much they spent on Dick’s in 12 months, and what their “lifetime value” is-it is estimated that they will end up with the company.

Bottom line

I don’t know you, but being reduced to the “lifetime value” that we might spend in a company seems to belittle our value as consumers, causing the company to be stingy in providing quality products and responsive customer service to all customers.