Personalization

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Personalization (broadly known as customization) consists of tailoring a service or product to accommodate specific individuals. It is sometimes tied to groups or segments of individuals. Personalization involves collecting data on individuals, including web browsing history, web cookies, and location. Various organizations use personalization (along with the opposite mechanism of popularization [1] ) to improve customer satisfaction, digital sales conversion, marketing results, branding, and improved website metrics as well as for advertising. Personalization acts as a key element in social media [2] and recommender systems. Personalization influences every sector of society — be it work, leisure, or citizenship.

Contents

History

The idea of personalization is rooted in ancient rhetoric as part of the practice of an agent or communicator being responsive to the needs of the audience. When industrialization influenced the rise of mass communication, the practice of message personalization diminished for a time.

In the recent times, there has been a significant increase in the number of mass media outlets that use advertising as a primary revenue stream. These companies gain knowledge about the specific demographic and psychographic characteristics of readers and viewers. [3] After that, this information is used to personalize an audience’s experience and therefore draw customers in through the use of entertainment and information that interests them.

Digital Media and Internet

Another aspect of personalization is the increasing relevance of open data on the Internet. Many organizations make their data available on the Internet via APIs, web services, and open data standards. One such example is Ordnance Survey Open Data. [4] Data made available in this way is structured to allow it to be inter-connected and used again by third parties. [5]

Data available from a user's social graph may be accessed by third-party application software so that it fits the personalized web page or information appliance.

Current open data standards on the Internet are:

  1. Attention Profiling Mark-up Language (APML)
  2. DataPortability
  3. OpenID
  4. OpenSocial

Websites

Web pages can be personalized based on their users' characteristics (interests, social category, context, etc.), actions (click on a button, open a link, etc.), intents (make a purchase, check the status of an entity), or any other parameter that is prevalent and associated with an individual. This provides a tailored user experience. Note that the experience is not just the accommodation of the user but a relationship between the user and the desires of the site designers in driving specific actions to attain objectives (e.g. Increase sales conversion on a page). The term customization is often used when the site only uses explicit data which include product ratings or user preferences.

Technically, web personalization can be accomplished by associating a visitor segment with a predefined action. Customizing the user experience based on behavioral, contextual, and technical data is proven to have a positive impact on conversion rate optimization efforts. Associated actions can be anything from changing the content of a webpage, presenting a modal display, presenting interstitials, triggering a personalized email, or even automating a phone call to the user.

According to a study conducted in 2014 at the research firm Econsultancy, less than 30% of e-commerce websites have invested in the field of web personalization. However, many companies now offer services for web personalization as well as web and email recommendation systems that are based on personalization or anonymously collected user behaviors. [6]

There are many categories of web personalization which includes:

  1. Behavioral
  2. Contextual
  3. Technical
  4. Historic data
  5. Collaboratively filtered

There are several camps in defining and executing web personalization. A few broad methods for web personalization include:

  1. Implicit
  2. Explicit
  3. Hybrid

With implicit personalization, personalization is performed based on data learned from indirect observations of the user. This data can be, for example, items purchased on other sites or pages viewed. [7] With explicit personalization, the web page (or information system) is changed by the user using the features provided by the system. Hybrid personalization combines the above two approaches to leverage both explicit user actions on the system and implicit data.

Web personalization can be linked to the notion of adaptive hypermedia (AH). The main difference is that the former would usually work on what is considered "open corpus hypermedia", while the latter would traditionally work on "closed corpus hypermedia." However, recent research directions in the AH domain take both closed and open corpus into account, making the two fields very inter-related.

Personalization is also being considered for use in less open commercial applications to improve the user experience in the online world. Internet activist Eli Pariser has documented personalized search, where Google and Yahoo! News give different results to different people (even when logged out). He also points out social media site Facebook changes user's friend feeds based on what it thinks they want to see. This creates a clear filter bubble.

Websites use a visitor's location data to adjust content, design, and the entire functionality. [8] On an intranet or B2E Enterprise Web portals, personalization is often based on user attributes such as department, functional area, or the specified role. The term "customization" in this context refers to the ability of users to modify the page layout or specify what content should be displayed.

Map Personalization

Digital web maps are also being personalized. Google Maps change the content of the map based on previous searches and profile information. [9] Technology writer Evgeny Morozov criticized map personalization as a threat to public space. [10]

Mobile Phones

Over time mobile phones have seen an increased attention placed on user personalization. Far from the black and white screens and monophonic ringtones of the past, smart phones now offer interactive wallpapers and MP3 truetones. In the UK and Asia, WeeMees have become popular. WeeMees are 3D characters that are used as wallpaper and respond to the tendencies of the user. Video Graphics Array (VGA) picture quality allows people to change their background without any hassle and without sacrificing quality. All of these services are downloaded by the provider with the goal to make the user feel connected and enhance the experience while using the phone. [11]

In print media, ranging from magazines to promotional publications, personalization uses databases of individual recipients' information. Not only does the written document address itself by name to the reader, but the advertising is targeted to the recipient's demographics or interests using fields within the database or list, [12] such as "first name", "last name", "company", etc.

The term "personalization" should not be confused with variable data, which is a much more detailed method of marketing that leverages both images and text with the medium, not just fields within a database. Personalized children's books are created by companies who are using and leveraging all the strengths of variable data printing (VDP). This allows for full image and text variability within a printed book. With the rise of online 3D printing services including Shapeways and Ponoko, personalization is becoming present in the world of product design.

Promotional Merchandise

Promotional items (mugs, T-shirts, keychains, balls and more) are personalized on a huge level. Personalized children's storybooks—wherein the child becomes the protagonist, with the name and image of the child personalized—are extremely popular. Personalized CDs for children are also in the market. With the advent of digital printing, personalized calendars that start in any month, birthday cards, cards, e-cards, posters and photo books can also be easily obtained.

3D Printing

3D printing is a production method that allows to create unique and personalized items on a global scale. Personalized apparel and accessories, such as jewellery, are increasing in popularity. [13] This kind of customization is also relevant in other areas like consumer electronics [14] and retail. [15] By combining 3D printing with complex software a product can easily be customized by an end-user.

Role of Customers

Mass personalization

Mass personalization is custom tailoring by a company in accordance with its end users' tastes and preferences. [16] From a collaborative engineering perspective, mass customization can be viewed as collaborative efforts between customers and manufacturers, who have different sets of priorities and need to jointly search for solutions that best match customers' individual specific needs with manufacturers' customization capabilities. [17] [18] The main difference between mass customization and mass personalization is that customization is the ability of a company to allow its customers to create and choose a product which, within limits, adheres to their personal specifications. [19]

For example, a website aware of its user's location and buying habits will offer suggestions tailored to their demographics. Each user is classified by some relevant trait, like location or age, and then given personalization aimed at that group. This means that the personalization is not individual to that singular user, it only pinpoints a specific trait that matches them up with a larger group of people. [20]

Behavioral targeting represents a concept that is similar to mass personalization.

Predictive Personalization

Predictive personalization is defined as the ability to predict customer behavior, needs or wants - and tailor offers and communications very precisely. [21] Social data is one source of providing this predictive analysis, particularly social data that is structured. Predictive personalization is a much more recent means of personalization and can be used to augment current personalization offerings. Predictive personalization has grown to play an especially important role in online grocers, where users, especially recurring clients, have come to expect "smart shopping lists" - mechanisms that predict what products they need based on customers similar to them and their past shopping behaviors. [22]

Personalization and power

The Volume-Control Model offers an analytical framework to understand how personalization helps to gain power. [1] It links between information personalization and the opposite mechanism, information popularization. This model explains how both personalization and popularization are employed together (by tech companies, organizations, governments or even individuals) as complementing mechanisms to gain economic, political, and social power. Among the social implications of information personalization is the emergence of filter bubbles.

See also

Related Research Articles

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or another organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.

Personalized marketing, also known as one-to-one marketing or individual marketing, is a marketing strategy by which companies use data analysis and digital technology to show adverts to individuals based on their perceived characteristics and interests. Marketers use methods from data collection, analytics, digital electronics, and digital economics then use technology to analyze it and show personalized ads based on algorithms that attempt to deduce people’s interests.

Mass customization makes use of flexible computer-aided systems to produce custom products. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.

The eCRM or electronic customer relationship management encompasses all standard CRM functions with the use of the net environment i.e., intranet, extranet and internet. Electronic CRM concerns all forms of managing relationships with customers through the use of information technology (IT).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geomarketing</span> Use of geographic information in marketing activities

In marketing, geomarketing is a discipline that uses geolocation in the process of planning and implementation of marketing activities. It can be used in any aspect of the marketing mix — the product, price, promotion, or place. Market segments can also correlate with location, and this can be useful in targeted marketing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cross-media marketing</span> Form of marketing promotion

Cross-media marketing is a form of cross-promotion in which promotional companies commit to surpassing traditional advertisement techniques and decide to include extra appeals to the products they offer. The material can be communicated by any mass media such as e-mails, letters, web pages, social media or other recruiting sources. This method can be extremely successful for publishers because the marketing increases the ad's profit from a single advertiser, as well as generates a good liaison between the advertiser and the publisher, which also boosts the profits. The integration of social media marketing into the marketing mix empowers firms to promote goods and services. It facilitates real-time interaction, fostering engagement and swift feedback. This approach enhances customer satisfaction by offering personalized experiences and addressing inquiries promptly. Effective social media utilization enables companies to build, sustain, and bolster their competitive edge in the digital realm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital marketing</span> Marketing of products or services using digital technologies or digital tools

Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geosocial networking</span> Social network with geographic features

Geosocial networking is a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics. User-submitted location data or geolocation techniques can allow social networks to connect and coordinate users with local people or events that match their interests. Geolocation on web-based social network services can be IP-based or use hotspot trilateration. For mobile social networks, texted location information or mobile phone tracking can enable location-based services to enrich social networking.

User modeling is the subdivision of human–computer interaction which describes the process of building up and modifying a conceptual understanding of the user. The main goal of user modeling is customization and adaptation of systems to the user's specific needs. The system needs to "say the 'right' thing at the 'right' time in the 'right' way". To do so it needs an internal representation of the user. Another common purpose is modeling specific kinds of users, including modeling of their skills and declarative knowledge, for use in automatic software-tests. User-models can thus serve as a cheaper alternative to user testing but should not replace user testing.

A click path or clickstream is the sequence of hyperlinks one or more website visitors follows on a given site, presented in the order viewed. A visitor's click path may start within the website or at a separate third party website, often a search engine results page, and it continues as a sequence of successive webpages visited by the user. Click paths take call data and can match it to ad sources, keywords, and/or referring domains, in order to capture data.

Artificial intelligence marketing (AIM) is a form of marketing that uses artificial intelligence concepts and models such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and computer vision to achieve marketing goals. The main difference between AIM and traditional forms of marketing resides in the reasoning, which is performed by a computer algorithm rather than a human.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Targeted advertising</span> Form of advertising

Targetedadvertising or data-driven marketing is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.

In information science, profiling refers to the process of construction and application of user profiles generated by computerized data analysis.

Personalized search is a web search tailored specifically to an individual's interests by incorporating information about the individual beyond the specific query provided. There are two general approaches to personalizing search results, involving modifying the user's query and re-ranking search results.

The social data revolution is the shift in human communication patterns towards increased personal information sharing and its related implications, made possible by the rise of social networks in the early 2000s. This phenomenon has resulted in the accumulation of unprecedented amounts of public data.

Gravity was a start up content personalization company based out of Los Angeles, California, United States. They helped publishers and advertisers deliver personalized content and ads. The company was founded in 2009, by Amit Kapur, Jim Benedetto, and Steve Pearman. The company was acquired by AOL in January 2014, for a reported $90.7 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cloud marketing</span>

Cloud marketing is the process of an organization's efforts to market their goods and services online through integrated digital experiences, by which they are specialized for every end-user. It aims to use advertising methods to give tailor-made adverts to customers based on their browsing history or interests via online applications through social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and various online portals. Cloud marketing platforms could be supported by third-party providers that maintain the platform.

The commercialization of the Internet encompasses the creation and management of online services principally for financial gain. It typically involves the increasing monetization of network services and consumer products mediated through the varied use of Internet technologies. Common forms of Internet commercialization include e-commerce, electronic money, and advanced marketing techniques including personalized and targeted advertising. The effects of the commercialization of the Internet are controversial, with benefits that simplify daily life and repercussions that challenge personal freedoms, including surveillance capitalism and data tracking. This began with the National Science Foundation funding supercomputing center and then universities being able to develop supercomputer sites for research and academic purposes.

Data philanthropy refers to private sector companies sharing data they collected for the public good, often to help address social or environmental challenges for public benefit. The concept was popularized through its introduction by the United Nations Global Pulse initiative in 2011 to leverage corporate data assets for humanitarian, academic, and societal causes. For instance, anonymized mobile data has been used to track disease outbreaks. In contrast, corporate data on consumer behavior may be shared with researchers to study public health and economic trends.

A personalization management system (PMS) is an integrated software solution that enables users in an organization to manage and deliver personalized messages, campaigns, and interactive experiences to consumers across different communications channels and devices.

References

  1. 1 2 Segev, Elad (2019-09-05). "Volume and control: the transition from information to power". Journal of Multicultural Discourses. 14 (3): 240–257. doi:10.1080/17447143.2019.1662028. ISSN   1744-7143. S2CID   203088993.
  2. ↑ "Data Up Close And Personal: Welcome To Social Media 'Hyper-personalization' | GE News". www.ge.com. Retrieved 2023-10-16.
  3. ↑ Turow, Joseph (2010). The Daily You. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.
  4. ↑ Thorpe, Chris; Rogers, Simon (2 April 2010). "Ordnance Survey opendata maps: what does it actually include?". The Guardian. London.
  5. ↑ "Google Opens Up Data Centre for Third Party Web Applications". Cio.com. 2008-05-28. Retrieved 2013-01-16.
  6. ↑ Angwin, Emily Steel and Julia (4 August 2010). "Anonymity in Name Only - Tracking Technology on the Web". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  7. ↑ Flynn, Lawrence. "5 Things To Know About Siri And Google Now's Growing Intelligence". Forbes.
  8. ↑ Kliman-Silver, Chloe; Hannak, Aniko; Lazer, David; Wilson, Christo; Mislove, Alan (2015-10-28). "Location, Location, Location: The Impact of Geolocation on Web Search Personalization". Proceedings of the 2015 Internet Measurement Conference. IMC '15. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 121–127. doi:10.1145/2815675.2815714. ISBN   978-1-4503-3848-6. S2CID   1850856.
  9. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (February 2013). "The Next Frontier For Google Maps Is Personalization". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  10. ↑ Morozov, Evgeny (2013-05-28). "My Map or Yours?". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2015-09-13.
  11. ↑ May, Harvey, and Greg Hearn. "The Mobile Phone as Media." International Journal of Cultural Studies 8.2 (2005): 195-211. Print.
  12. ↑ "Variable Data Processor" . Retrieved 8 November 2020.
  13. ↑ Weinman, Aaron (21 February 2012). "New jewellery website targets 'customisers'". Jeweller Magazine. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "Philips launches the world's first personalized, 3D printed face shaver for limited edition run". 3ders.org. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  15. ↑ "Twikit brings 3D customization to French retail". Twikit Blog | 3D Customization, 3D Printing. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  16. ↑ "personalize: Definition, Synonyms from". Answers.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2013-01-16.
  17. ↑ Chen, S., Y. Wang and M. M. Tseng. 2009. Mass Customization as a Collaborative Engineering Effort. International Journal of Collaborative Engineering, 1(2): 152-167
  18. ↑ P. Sengottuvelan, R. Lokeshkumar, T. Gopalakrishnan, "An Improved Session Identification Approach in Web Log Mining for Web Personalization," Journal of Internet Technology, vol. 18, no. 4 , pp. 723-730, Jul. 2017.
  19. ↑ Haag et al., Management Information Systems for the Information Age, 3rd edition, 2006, page 331.
  20. ↑ Wallop, Harry (2013-01-18). "How supermarkets prop up our class system". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  21. ↑ "10 Trends for 2013 Executive Summary: Definition, Projected Trends". JWTIntelligence.com. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-04.
  22. ↑ "Using Data in the eCommerce Grocery Customer Journey". ciValue. 2020-10-08. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
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