It’s true this practice has been around forever, but it’s happening in ways you might not expect. For instance, you don’t have to search far to find reports of companies like Apple sending customised emails to people just moments after they had finished browsing their website.
Those emails show off products from the pages those users were visiting.
Target provides probably the best example of this type of marketing. Last year, it created an algorithm which could not only detect if a woman was pregnant, but how far along in the pregnancy. The algorithm was so accurate that one man even called up the company furious it had told him his 16-year-old daughter was pregnant – and he promptly apologised when he found out the company was right.
As Amblique director Justus Wilde says, finding this type of targeting is difficult. When it works, the consumer shouldn’t really know that it’s happening.
“You should never really notice it. Just like Google comes up with the best search results, websites are using this type of targeting to tailor their message.”
Google is actually an apt comparison. The service is using more local data to customise search results, so if two people in two different parts of the world search for the exact same phrase, there is a chance they’ll come up with different results based on what their friends are searching for, what type of content they read, and how often they actually search on the web.
So where can it go next? And how can businesses get involved?
Kogan seems to think he can expand on his idea further, using different types of technology to better target people. And that means other businesses can do this as well.
“We use this in our fraud detection process all the time, looking at users all the way down to the device and operating system level. We profile them there, and we haven’t altered prices at all, but it’s definitely a trend that will increase going forward.”
“You have to remember this is happening in sales anyway. People will look at you and judge you based on your appearance, and then speak to you in that way. If you’re wearing a Rolex, a salesman knows you’re not fussy about price, for instance.
The question remains how exactly these types of targeting techniques will transform with technology. Kogan and Orbitz have already started using operating systems as a jumping-off point.
These aren’t huge businesses, either. All of these experts stress that small businesses can do this type of targeting based on the data they receive through their usual analytics. And if they do a little work, they can go even deeper – targeting based on age, location, even average spend.
Then they can tailor websites to appear differently based on this type of information. For many users, they may never see the same home page despite visiting the exact same URL.
So where does it go next?
“I think they’ll start integrating geo as well,” says Fred Schebesta. “They’ll see if you’re out in the middle of nowhere, compared to if you’re in the middle of New York and can pay a little bit more to get a flight or something like that.”
“Just imagine if they could see what other sites you’ve been on, and that based on those histories, you’re price-sensitive and need to find the cheapest option for whatever it is you’re looking for – and that works on mobile devices as well, they can see if you’re more urgent.
Ultimately, this will become about making sure individuals have a totally customisable experienced, based on the information tracked by a third party. And the more websites do it, the better they’ll become; and, as these experts point out, the less you’ll notice.
“Integration of all these different elements could be quite neat. Imagine if websites saw what your friends did, and then based their experience around that?”
“It’s happening more and more.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
