By Chris Lee

The Internet has made it easier than ever for brands to know who people are, what they like, what they don't, and how they want to be communicated with. But while consumers respond well to personalised communications, there are emerging concerns over how this personal information is used and where it eventually ends up.

This is an argument put forward by Pearse McCabe, strategy and planning director of digital agency Rufus Leonard. McCabe also believes that personalisation is the key to successful online marketing on the Social Web. NMK caught up with McCabe to find out more.

Why is personalisation “a central pillar of brand communications” and what do you mean by ‘personalisation’ in the digital context?

The original conception of a brand is that it acts as a “shortcut”. At the most basic level, a brand is a promise of a service or a product at a particular quality standard and price. On a more sophisticated level, brands act as a “shortcut” to a set of values that the consumer feels comfortable with, or indeed a set of values to which they aspire.

I believe that we are now in the third age of brand development. The birth and growth of digital has opened up the opportunity for brands to make this shortcut even more efficient and effective. Brands now have the capacity to know much more about their consumers and can not only bring those values to life through behaviour and action, but also personalise what they say and when they say it.  

Where is the general consensus on where the ‘fine line’ lies between consumer confidence and breached trust? How far are brands pushing this?

The wrong side of the line falls into two different categories of sins. The first is unthinking bombardment. This is the golf brand ad that is still following you around two years after you looked at the manufacturer’s website.  Unless there is some new information or an offer of genuine value then the brand should have concluded that you are happily enjoying your new clubs and are no longer in the market.

The other is handing the consumer’s information on to other parties without permission. This is the cardinal sin and can result in the consumer cutting off any future dialogue with a brand.

Do you think consumers find targeted ads creepy or intuitive, on the whole?

I really don’t think that consumers are ever “creeped out” if there is value in the communication or the contact.  Remember that consumers want brands to make it easy for them and if you can provide some value through price, convenience or service then consumers will be happy. The one caveat is that brands need to know their various audiences and what their boundaries are in terms of “personal digital space”.  

Who’s doing personalisation really well and why?

I think we always come back to the usual suspects such as Ebay and Facebook which are community based and start to craft content around the consumer from the first visit. Ebay sends alerts around sellers and things that you may be interested in. Facebook is constantly “nudging” in an intelligent way. 

Barclaycard Freedom also successfully builds a sense of who you are and drives that knowledge through to all touch points in an intelligent way.

What are your top tips for good personalised digital marketing?

Personalisation for us needs to follow three key principles:

1. Relevance: Make sure what you are saying or offering is genuinely relevant to your audience.

2. Timeliness: Choose the right time to try to connect with your consumers.

3. Value: Make sure that what you are saying is of real value, be it useful information or a genuine reward above and beyond a consumer’s normal interaction with the brand.

Intelligence is key here. Digital marketing is not about just another opportunity to communicate. It provides the opportunity to be generous, to see marketing as a gift, to reward loyalty and to open up a rich and fruitful dialogue with your consumers.