VIEWPOINT: Ask for permission before you speak

The new age of direct, one-on-one marketing is upon us, thanks to the Internet. According to those in the know, this revolutionary new medium will - and in some cases, already does - allow marketers to specifically target consumers as individuals, tailoring advertisements specially for each and every one of them. Database mining, cookies, tracking, new technology - these are all means to which marketers will justify the ends of using the 'Net as a communications tool. Which is all fine and well from the marketers' point of view. But for the consumer, the implications are disturbing. Direct marketing is one thing, but the line between communication and downright harrassment is a fine one. In general, most consumers view advertising as a necessary evil, which they endure because they realise it keeps their own costs down, and because - occasionally - they see an ad which is of interest and informs them. But ask 20 people in the street if they would rather that they saw no advertisements at all, and chances are that at least 15 of them would say 'yes'. And when these ads start being addressed directly to individuals, the sensation of Big Brother's big hand on our shoulders is more than a little disconcerting. Another issue which has not yet been addressed is the fact that much of the one-on-one marketing facilities online are computer-generated, controlled by software programmes which do not take into account any human considerations - because they can't. How else to explain the fact that one Hotmail user, a married woman with two young children, regularly finds her mailbox crammed with junk email from pornography sites touting the temptations of "hot young sexy luscious schoolgirls all naked all the time"? And where does the whole privacy issue come in to the picture? Back in the '90s, much was made of the fact that lists and personal information were being sold to marketers; legislation controlling and preventing such happenings was introduced - to little or no effect. This is where discretion, permission marketing and the human element are going to prove crucial. Unless marketers realise that they risk annoying and alienating consumers by talking directly and incessantly to them on a one-on-one basis, the whole Internet phenomenon is at risk.

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