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CHAPTER 2 DIGITAL CUSTOMERS
further reading ...
The following links take you to content that supplements and updates this chapter of the book. Note that
I’ve included some articles that are a few years old ... don't let their publication date put you off - they are
still relevant now. The most recent posts are at end of each section.
2.1 INTRODUCTION
SNIPPET *page 8*
EXERCISE The age of average doesn't really belong in a book on digital marketing - though 'digital' plays a part in some of the issues - but I believe it is worth a look. If I was still teaching I would have a discussion on its contents, so I've put it here as an exercise.
Instagram is making you a worse tourist – here’s how to travel respectfully is another article that I think is worth including even though it is not about digital marketing - but the impact on business is relevant. Perhaps worth a class discussion?
2.2 ONLINE BUYING BEHAVIOUR
GO ONLINE *page 18*
These apps collect the most personal data
I’ll let you decide on the accuracy of Which Online Activities Do Smartphone Owners Prefer to Perform On Their Devices? ... but you should note that 74% of the respondents have investments which the manage online. I’ll also let you decide on the relevance of that on the results.
The sales funnel has been around for some time - and it can be a useful tool. The Evolving Sales Funnel considers - with examples of practice - how it is evolving. But does it stand up to the test for contemporary customers? The Death Of The Purchase Funnel is the last of a series of articles on the subject, so make sure you click on the links to read the earlier stuff. If you check out the comments at the end of the article you will see that the author - Gordon Hotchkiss - says: "The problem I have with models, AIDA included, is that while they may be correct, they also over-simplify reality, causing marketers to over simplify their strategies. This is particularly dangerous in a market in transition, as is the current case." This could well become my mantra for all marketing models and concepts.
EXERCISE Discuss the findings presented in We’re Spending Less of Our Online Time with Social Media. Of particular interest for this section is how little time is spent on 'retail'. Also note the time spent on social media; do those statistics suggest that - as SM marketers would have us believe - folk are 'always on social media'?
User Journeys vs. User Flows is kind-of about this subject area.
I could have put Email’s Still A Top Purchase Driver, but Not for Everybody in a number of chapters, but it is about buying ... so it's here. This is one of those pieces of research where I suggest that you question the results. I think that the findings should say 'of people who use XXX regularly, this is the percentage who ...'. Why? Well take, for example, that much of the data says over 50% of people have made a purchase from a certain kind of media ... and yet other research suggests that only around 50% of all people use that medium. Also, the question; 'have you made a purchase from ... ' suggests that the purchase is made direct from clicking on a link on the message. Not, clicking on the ad/message/promotion and then having a think about it and/or doing a bit of research [and perhaps buying from a different supplier - on or offline]. Then there is the time period - 12 months. So, one purchase in the last year gets a tick in the box. That's good if you sell high value products/services [eg holidays], not so if what you sell is low value.
2.3 THE ONLY WAY IS ETHICS
OK, this is a wordplay on the UK TV show ‘the only way is Essex’. I used it as a joke in class one week, and it stuck. The students dared me to use it in the next [this] edition of the book. So I did.
Access to the Internet
Widespread Verizon outage roils Northeast
Twitter experiences longest global outage in years
Google Ads, AdSense, Analytics, and other platforms suffering reporting outages, again shows that it is not just customers that suffer – how many sales were lost during this downtime?
Google Search outage causing major issues with search quality and indexing.
‘We all saw it’: anti-Xi Jinping protest electrifies Chinese internet Scramble to censor posts about Sitong bridge incident in Beijing where defiant banners were hung and a fire lit in lead-up to Communist party congress. I don't really cover this subject in the book [maybe I should?] but some folk don't have access to all of the Internet because their government censor it. Kind of the opposite of allowing everything on the web ... which is a problem within itself.
March 2024 ... Facebook and Instagram in apparent global outage.
Privacy
The data game: what Amazon knows about you and how to stop it
Everything Is Listening—We Already Live In A Surveillance State, We Just Don’t Know It.
More on The Internet Of (Creepy Spy-ey) Things
This video - Online advertising causes the world's biggest data breach. We are going to court to stop it - is well worth your time. From a privacy point of view, you may find it disturbing. From an online advertising point of view it will tell you how real-time-bidding [RTB] works.
By including Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics I’m not making a comment on the issue of abortion – I’m raising the issue of how easy it is for personal information to be made available to third parties. Facebook and Anti-Abortion Clinics Are Collecting Highly Sensitive Info on Would-Be Patients covers the same subject.
Thousands of Popular Websites See What You Type—Before You Hit Submit A surprising number of the top 100,000 websites effectively include keyloggers that covertly snag everything you type into a form.
The Biggest Data Breach comes from an Irish government department, so no axes to grind or kudos to be gained from/by its authors. Some of the numbers presented are pretty disturbing [though not a great surprise to long-term followers of online advertising]. It’s this kind of research that may/will hurry the demise of real-time bidding – perhaps even by the time you read this.
FTC fines Twitter $150M for using 2FA [Two Factor Authentication] info for targeted advertising
How spooky is this … Everyone Sees Something Different On Delta’s New Face Recognition Airport Display
You agreed to what? Doctor check-in software harvests your health data is about the USA – but how long before we see similar around the world [tip; the Boris Johnson Conservative government tried something similar in the UK]
Tesla 'Spy' Cars Banned By German Police isn’t about online privacy, but it is about privacy if you consider why the ban was implemented.
I tend to pick out the likes of Google allowed sanctioned Russian ad company to harvest user data for months pretty much at random – just as an example of the kind of thing that’s going on out there.
Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless and negligent cybersecurity policies is about users' – your – personal information.
Instagram fined €405M for violating kids’ privacy - the fine is the third for a Meta-owned company handed down by the Irish regulator.
South Korea Hits Google, Meta With Record-Setting Fines Over Privacy Violations
How TikTok Tracks You Across the Web, Even If You Don’t Use the App is from a non-tech/digital source, so it explains the story clearly. TikTok will use your data to fuel its multibillion-dollar shopping mall — whether you know it or not is on the same subject - but although TikTok is named in the title, the article tells how Meta, Google and Microsoft are guilty of the same practice.
Not strictly part of this book's subject, but
Uber Will Start Serving You Targeted Ads Based On Where You Go.
Facebook: Meta fined €265m by Irish Data Protection Commission.
Which websites are sharing data about consumers with Elon Musk’s Twitter? Commenting on this Bob Hoffman said; ‘There is also inexplicable incompetence and stupidity. The idea that Ford, General Motors and VW would allow Twitter to place tracking pixels on their websites is an indication of the cluelessness and carelessness of supposedly responsible organizations about the ramifications of adtech and online tracking. In what universe do responsible companies voluntarily allow the CEO of one of their biggest competitors to monitor the activities of their customers?‘
Smile ... your vacuum cleaner is taking photos of you; A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook?
Meta Fined $414 Million, Forced to Change its Approach to Ad Personalization in Europe.
Hackers reportedly leak email addresses of more than 200 million Twitter users.
EXERCISE Read If You’ve Got a New Car, It’s a Data Privacy Nightmare and then consider what Tom Goodwin says:
'I get really annoyed by pieces like this that claim cars want to know about your sex life and your weight and also listen to you.
When a privacy policy from Nissan states: “It reserves the right to share and sell “preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes” to data brokers, law enforcement, and other third parties,” it doesn’t mean Nissan is about to sell your most deviant secrets to the market. It means a 24-year-old legal intern was tired and copied terms and conditions from a double-glazing firm’s website, which was written by a 27-year-old lawyer working out his notice period, who copied it from some website somewhere, because nobody ever cared about this stuff and nobody ever checked it. Never confuse conniving vicious intentions with languorous legal work and the way the entire world is constructed by recycling what’s done before.'
Who's right?
Marketing giant ‘admits it listens to your conversations to sell targeted ads’ ... well d'uh.
Most Consumers Continue to Find Location-Based Ads Creepy.
Are brands infringing our rights? Recognize the 4 horsemen of the data apocalypse.
The digital footprint
Note that this section of the book concentrates on individual's use of the web - see below in 'Digital Marketing and the Environment' for how each person's footprint fits in with the bigger picture.
Is help at hand?
How new European tech laws could affect your marketing business is the business-side view on the subject, but it’s about individuals’ privacy.
According to a new study only 11% of US businesses fully meet California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requirements. This is higher than the 6% fully compliant with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
IAB warns ad legislation is coming
Online integrity
I’ve added a few links here – there are far more out there – simply as examples of how some of the major digital brands act. Perhaps you might want to consider that if you were in a position to make the decision, would you feel okay with spending your marketing budget with any of these companies.
Apple linked to anti-climate policy lobbying groups - the iPhone maker wants to lead the way on climate change, but funds groups that oppose green policies.
Amazon Third-Party Delivery Driver Injuries Increased 40% in 2021, According to Report
Bolt Loaned Employees Thousands to Buy Stock—Then Laid Them Off
I’ve included FCC commissioner calls on Google and Apple to ban TikTok from their app stores to encourage marketers in taking a wider perspective on the subject, so ... If this is true, should you be using TikTok for your online advertising?
Facebook is bombarding cancer patients with ads for unproven treatments - clinics offering debunked cancer treatments are still allowed to advertise, despite the company’s stated efforts to control medical misinformation.
TikTok is being sued after two young girls died while copying the 'blackout challenge', report says
The company is ‘digital’, so I think Help save the cities you love. Stop using Airbnb warrants inclusion here. This is just one of several similar articles I could have used.
Amazon being investigated in UK for practices which may give customers 'worse deal'
OK, so Uber doesn’t really belong in this book – but it calls itself a ‘digital’ company, so I’ve included About the Uber Files investigation. It makes for very uncomfortable reading when considering business ethics. But … satisfaction breeds forgiveness; why people are so quick forget Uber’s sins.
I mention this subject in the book – here’s another A factory line of terrors: TikTok's African content moderators complain they were treated like robots, reviewing videos of suicide and animal cruelty for less than $3 an hour.
OK, so in the great scheme of things Amazon fights to nix drop shipping isn’t that big of a deal … but it still portrays poor business practice on behalf of Amazon.
Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star reflects badly on the social media brand.
Why Big Tech pays poor Kenyans to teach self-driving cars.
In the book I allude to this kind of thing … 30+ brands suspend their Twitter marketing campaigns after finding their ads next to child-pornography accounts. However, I refer to organizations stopping using social sites altogether, not just for advertising.
TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging does not reflect well on the Chinese-owned site.
More on TikTok from a respected source; How TikTok ate the internet. I find it quite disturbing,
When Kanye West made a series of antisemitic, bigoted and hateful statements on Twitter the commercial world condemned and shunned him ... that is, all except his business partner, Adidas. The sportswear brand did react, eventually. But this did not stop the criticism. It’s time for Adidas to kick Kanye, and his kicks, to the curb once and for all was published the day before Adidas cuts ties with rapper Kanye West over anti-Semitism - I've included both so that you can follow the story ... and Adidas cuts ties with Kanye West, but has the brand damage already been done? is a reflection after the event.
How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World is about advertising - but it belongs here.
Accounts Are Hiding Child Sexual Abuse Material In Plain Sight.
Advertisers are asking questions about the data TikTok can collect ... well, better late than never. And on the same subject ... TikTok owner ByteDance’s data practices under fire, raising concerns among advertisers.
How monopoly enshittified Amazon.
OK, so this is not really part of this chapter, but I think it is important - Airbnb Is Running Riot in Small-Town America.
Perhaps Inside the violent, misogynistic world of TikTok’s new star, Andrew Tate covers most that is wrong with social media; that such a person is seen as a hero on TikTok reflects poorly on society, that he breaks most of TikTok's own rules and yet the platform has done nothing to ban him ... and from a marketing perspective - brands are willing to to advertise on a website that support such an individual.
These two articles are on the same subject. I could have put them in other sections/chapters - but I think the story is about how organizations use the Internet, so they're here. See; Steal Money and Launder It, In One Convenient Step and We need to stop making media crime pay. As a slight aside - though I think it also belongs under online integrity - take a look at the Privacy Notice on the second of these. I particularly do not understand that they ‘need my consent’ ... but I have to withdraw it [by cancelling their cookies on my PC] so that they have it.
EXERCISE: Here's another couple of interesting articles that aren't directly relevant to digital marketing ... but then the subject is relevant to business ethics. See ‘I’m always delivering food while hungry’: how undocumented migrants find work as substitute couriers in the UK and UK rapid grocery firms plan to put riders back on zero-hour contracts. Do you think it is ethical for global brands to have their products delivered to customers in this way? If it was your own business would you want to make higher profits by exploiting those less fortunate than you?
Brands still funding climate denial videos, despite YouTube’s promises to demonetize.
2.4 DIGITAL MARKETING AND THE ENVIRONMENT
In the chapter I mention the impact of data centres on the environment – do some of your own research to see how much worse this has become since I wrote the chapter.
Exposed: Amazon’s enormous and rapidly growing plastic pollution problem and Amazon’s plastic packaging waste could encircle the globe 500 times cover the same story.
Private Report Shows How Amazon Drastically Undercounts Its Carbon Footprint is not strictly speaking digital – but it is about the biggest e-commerce site on the planet.
Meta’s data centre used same electricity as 151,000 homes - the company’s latest sustainability report has shown that the amount of electricity consumed by the Meath data centre has nearly doubled since 2019
I’ve included Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control: Inside Shein’s Sudden Rise here because of the issue of cheap, disposable clothes being sold online, but it is an interesting read about business in general and e-commerce in particular.
According to Fears over data centres soaking up water during UK drought ‘Thames Water is investigating the water consumption of data centres’. Investigating? Like most properties in the UK, I have a water meter – no need to investigate, just read the numbers.
And from the USA … Data centers, backbone of the digital economy, face water scarcity and climate risk. Could it be that the price of data storage will hit users sooner rather than later?
How technology can cut the ‘hidden’ environmental impacts of campaigns includes the comment that ‘consumers are demanding that brands become more sustainable, including in their marketing activities’ – something I tend to agree with in certain products and markets [breakfast cereals, no – cars, maybe]. This is a good article which considers the wider issues for marketers.
‘Dark data’ is killing the planet – we need digital decarbonisation.
What is ‘dark data’ and how is it adding to all of our carbon footprints?
This wasn’t part of all the hype about putting data on the cloud ... ‘The average data center can consume as much electricity as a small city in order to power and cool its computing equipment' and ‘By the end of this decade, some estimate that cloud infrastructures will gobble up 20% of the world’s energy resources.' See The Infinite Cloud Is a Fantasy.
The next frontier in e-commerce packaging: reusable bags and boxes.
Google’s water use is soaring in The Dalles, records show, with two more data centers to come.
AI is harming our planet is quite an eye-opener.
The author of Carbon emissions, net zero media buying are the latest greenwashing shiny objects usually talks about online advertising - in this article he writes about how ads damage the environment.
The title of Is generative AI bad for the environment? A computer scientist explains the carbon footprint of ChatGPT and its cousins says it all.