DISSERTATION ON VIRAL MARKETING OF FMCG: CONSUMER PRIVACY / DATA PROTECTION - Essay Example

? DISSERTATION ON VIRAL MARKETING OF FMCG: CONSUMER PRIVACY DATA PROTECTION As partial for a degree in marketing The Table of contents 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..3 2. Review of the Literature………………………………………………………………………..3 3. Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………7 4. Findings & Discussion………………………………………………………………………….8 5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………….12 6. References……………………………………………………………………………………..14 7. Appendices ……………………………………………………………………………………18 1. Introduction Viral marketing or viral advertisement is a recent buzzword in the field of marketing (Blythe 2006: 510; Scott 2010: 93). Viral marketing is defined as a marketing phenomenon that fosters and influences people to go through the marketing messages created by companies (Hutchison 2013:1; Allen 2008: 12). Viral marketing is a self-replicating process and uses pre-existing social networks and online platforms (Plunkett 2007: 17; Papadopoulou, Kanellis and Martakos, 2011: 301). It spreads exponentially over the social media or other online platforms (Watts and Peretti, 2007: 2). The best example of viral marketing is Hotmail, which offers free e-mail services to users (Bryce 2007: 14). Whenever a user sends e-mail to others, there is an integrated viral add, which is sent to the recipient about signing up for a Hotmail account. I found out that the use of viral marketing is increasing at a rapid pace and marketers are considering it as one of the most useful marketing tools (Woerndl, Papagiannidis and Bourlakis, 2008: 33-45). Moreover, I found this topic to be enjoyable as well as challenging. The subject made me think about the degree to which viral marketing using social media can be effective for a company involved in the business of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). I would therefore like to study on the effect of viral marketing on the FMCG companies. In simple words, how viral marketing improves business process and performance of an FMCG company will be studied. 2. Review of the Literature Consumer privacy and data security are very important; this is grounded on the fact that when personal information that is meant to be private falls into the wrong hands, the effect of this can be vital. The victims could be subjected to identity theft where their identity is used on credit cards; without their knowledge, putting them in financial debt. The number of social network users around the world has risen from 1.47 billion in 2012 to 1.73 billion in 2013. Apart from social media, internet marketing has also contributed to this large number of people in the social networks. The term ‘viral marketing’ was created by Steve Jurvetson in 1997 to portray hot mail's practice to affix for advertising (Hinz et al, 2011: 24). The main goal of viral marketing is to generate a ‘buzz’ about a product or an idea, including users to relay the marketing messages to others and create an exponential growth in the message’s visibility and effect. According to Debele et al, (2007: 291-304) viral marketing employs the concept of using the social networks of other people so that they can propagate and expose their business products and services. Business people believe that it can make use of the social network systems of other people they can relatively lower down expenses in terms of marketing (Allen, 2008:15). This aspect of using other people’s social networks has proven to be one of the cheapest and best methods of marketing in that it reaches large numbers of people is a very short period of time. The security of these companies’ consumers is a question that needs to be addressed. A study conducted by Sherman proposes a do not track technique along with an overall online privacy structure that would rigidly regulate how data is collected, used, and stored (Sherman 2010: 22-39). Deviating from the difference between "personally-identifiable information" and "non-personally-identifiable information “has created the basis for other privacy regulations and legislation. The framework proposed in the preliminary for companies in the study by Chaffey maintains that such a dichotomy is no longer relevant (Chaffey, 2006:17). The main difference of opinion is the “opt out” and “Do Not Track” techniques that focus on innovation and development of consumer privacy/ data protection. The framework has five steps that show how consumer privacy and data security should be made. The steps are as follows; • The guidelines are expected to be adopted by a majority of businesses that collect data information; which can easily identify the specific individual to a specific customer, computer or other technological device like phones. • Companies have to adapt the privacy protection strategy into their business premises. This includes data protection and accuracy. • Companies ought to simplify customer choice with standardised and less lengthy privacy disclosures that are easy to understand. Conventionally, companies had been making use of the “notice-and-choice” model. This model has proved to be unsuccessful according to (Rappaport, 2007: 135-141) as it resulted to complicated privacy/ data protection policies that cannot be understood by consumers. According to a research done by Selis et al, the consumers were expected to give feedback if they had read the privacy/ data protection in social sites that they usually use. This included sites like twitter, YouTube, and or face book. According to the results, most consumers never read the private policy, but accept the user license immediately. According to study, social sites and virtual industries fail to adequately protect the consumers (Selis et al, 2002: 326-543). • The disclosure must include permission on how the information will be used and for how long. According to discussions of Leek and Christodoulides, the disclosure must incorporate the methods the data collected will be used, limiting the future use of the given data (Leek and Christodoulides, 2011:833). • An out of the ordinary method for online behavioral advertising must include an option where the consumer is allowed to select the option “Do Not Track”. According to (Lindgreen & Vanhamme, 2005:122-139) The “Do Not Track” provision is the most controversial guideline in this Report. It has been criticized in a Concurring Statement by (Farquhar et al, 2002:425) as being a severe threat to the major benefits of consumers and businesses that the report recognizes a direct result of the increasing flow of information. Comments on the benefits listed in the study target business models for example; cloud computing, online search social networking, online behavioral advertising, health services, and mobile technologies, (Clarke, 2008:366). Researchers noted that search engines endow customers with instant access to unlimited information free of charge (Whyatt, 2008: 315). Online advertising aids in support of the content available to consumers, it also allows personalized advertising that a majority of consumers value. Social networking services allow users to cordially connect with friends and share incidences in real time. There are several issues concerning consumer privacy and data protection. The study conducted by Pearsons and Maclaran, discusses that there are no real online privacy rights of consumers; these are not absolute rights but joint ownership privileges shared with online marketers (Pearsons and Maclaran, 2009:88). Security of personal data across national borders is another issue. A research conducted by Tadajewski and Brownlie reveals the concerns about security of personal data as information flows across national borders increases accordingly. Personal data and business transactions assembled by international companies are no longer considered safe once they join the real of the internet (Tadajewski and Brownlie, 2008:56). There is also the issue of consumer awareness as discussed by (Kvale, 1996:33) consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the privacy of their personal information and information about their purchase behaviors. This has been the cause by the awareness that data protection may not be accurately done. 3. Data collection Research differs in a number of aspects, but they do have some commonalities. What do action research, evaluation research, ethnography, phenomenology and others have in common? One of the common aspects is to collect data. Data collection can be derived from a number of methods, which include interviews, focus groups, surveys, telephone interviews, taped social interaction or questionnaires. Data collection for this study was the use of interviews. Interviewing is only a way of collecting data as well as gaining knowledge from individuals. Interviews are an interchange of views between two or more people on a topic of mutual interest. The interview consisted of ten simple questions on the topic ‘consumer privacy and data protection’. The interviewee was supposed to answer yes or no to most of the questions, and the rest were short answer questions. I approached the participants personally after a club meeting, where I introduced myself and told them the purpose of my research, and requested them to participate in my interview for data collection because they are all consumers. The participants were chosen in an unbiased method. The interview was conducted in a private room, where the interviewer asked questions, and the interviewee answered verbally. The exchange was recorded on a tape recorder. The interview lasted for 15 minutes. The interviewees were initially asked questions concerning their personal lives; this included their occupation, age, level of education, and gender. The age gap of the participants was between 22 to 35 years of age. Majority of them were familiar with viral marketing and how it works. It was very probable that I would get accurate information from this age group that any other ages group. 4. Findings and discussions From the interview, I carried out the findings were similar to general concern in that most participants are concerned about the safety of their personal data. Majority have been victims of hacking, where their private social accounts have been hacked by people from various parts of the world. I found out that most of the interviewees are concerned about the safety of private demographic variables such as gender, age, income, occupation and even home address. They were not contented with the various measures that the social media or other companies using the internet have taken to protect their employee’s data and consumer data. From these findings, it is right to say that consumers do not feel protected/ safe to use social media and that they are not happy with the lack of privacy they have experienced. Data from the interviews was as following; 85% of the participants were well aware of the issues involved in consumer privacy and data protection. 20% of participants were aware of the issue of consumer privacy. 5% of the participants were not aware of the consumer privacy issues and data protection. The answers from the participants were measured on a scale of 1-10 were one signifies no concern on the issue of consumer privacy and data protection and 10 signifies high level of concern on the issue of consumer privacy and data protection. The data was collected separately for male and female participants because the number of male participants was higher than that of female participants. I categorized the participants into three groups depending on their knowledge on the issue of consumer privacy and data protection. Those who know about the problem and have been victims of lack of privacy were categorized in the ‘aware’ group. Those who have never been victims of lack of privacy but had information about consumer privacy were in the ‘informed’ category. Those who did not have any information about consumer privacy and had never been victims of lack of privacy were in the ‘unaware’ category. As mentioned earlier, the age bracket of the participants was 22-35 years. This is because this age group is the most active group on the internet. After personal data, I asked the participants to rate their feelings about five different scenarios involving consumer privacy and data protection. The scenarios were chosen to emulate real life experiences where the consumer would likely encounter either first party or third party consumer privacy effects. I laid out real life scenarios where the participator could envision themselves being victims of the lack of consumer privacy on social networks and other online uses. This was done in order to collect data on the participator’s attitude towards data protection and consumer privacy. Graphical representation of the data collected is as following; The bar graph represents attitude levels on the topic consumer privacy and data protection on the x-axis and variables (gender and category) on the y-axis. Those in the aware category show higher numbers of attitude levels because they understand the importance of consumer privacy and data protection. The attitude levels drop as you move to the informed, which know about consumer privacy and data protection but are not bothered by the issues involved. The unaware group has no clue on consumer privacy and data protection and so they depend on their newly acquired information and intellect to answer questions. Attitude levels are a contribution of education status the uneducated was unaware/ ignorant; the educated were aware Figure 2: pie chart gender representation of attitude towards consumer privacy and data protection On a pie chart representation, the data is presented as shown below. The males take a larger area on the representation of attitude towards consumer privacy and data protection because they were the majority of the participants. It has been proven that more men are active in the social media and on the internet than women. From the data, the topic of consumer privacy and data security seems to be favored by all members. This means the consumers feel that there is a need for policies to be made the will effectively protect their data and give the privacy while using the internet. This finding is similar to other research findings that carried out a similar survey to find out what attitudes consumers have on consumer privacy and data security. (Sableman et al, 2012) Says that Do Not Track method has emerged from the current issue faced by consumers and advertisers. This method acts as a self-effacing intervention that does little to move the underlying spurs that have driven increasing tracking and aggregation of consumer data. Another research done by (Pingitore et al, 2013) has similar findings. He says that when asked how concerned they are today about threats regarding their personal information, 53% of the participants said they were ‘very concerned’ compared to only 40% of both web-intercept and panel respondents. This shows that there is a need for better methods of data protection and consumer privacy. There has been a lot of propaganda on the security of social media users’ personal data for a long time. This is because when signing up one is required to fill in personal details. The question of who can access this information is a mystery that needs to be solved. According to (Heaton, 2004:37), this concern has spread to online businesses where employees are getting concerned about the safety of their personal information like address, date of birth, age, level of education including grades obtained in school. On-line marketing has also contributed to this concern because some advertisements come in as spam messages. Where and how details of one’s email address were found, is becoming a concerning issue. The distinction between public and private space (Blyth 2006:35) has now been narrowed. For instance, in “private” spaces, consumers’ privacy is endured; this is opposed to "public" spaces where consumer privacy is not ensured. Private space consumers cannot be identified without their consent, different from public spaces where users can be identified easily. However some uses of social media have been identified and information about them has been stolen. A study conducted at a large Midwestern university revealed that consumers have a preference of advertising which are relevant to their interests. This suggests that when addressing consumer privacy issues, the relevant policymakers have to put in consideration the real value of new technologies that permit consumers to obtain advertisements directed to their interests. In particular Sableman’s studies suggest that policymakers should carefully weigh the benefits from tailored advertising against consumer privacy concerns (Sableman et al, 2011: 321-476). 5. Conclusion From the interview, I have found out that consumers and internet users are very concerned about the topic ‘consumer privacy and data collection’. I have also found out that carrying out a survey with a population that understands the concept of your topic gives accurate feedback and data. (Lyengar and Lepper, 200:12) Say that findings change depending on variables like gender, age, topic relevance, and data collecting method among other factors. (Iglesias et al, 2013: 670-688) The focal point of the public policy dispute on data privacy has to be on consumer demands and preferences. Those needs and preferences must be correctly understood and balanced. According to Jackson, the effectiveness and persuasiveness of studies that address consumer privacy issues from technical and abstract viewpoints is a persistent issue (Jackson, 2007:23). (Hann et al, 2008: 1094-1103) Variables determine the outcome of studies and thus, it is hard for on to say that their study is the correct because it is only true and correct as pre the variable used. Another set of variables would give a different outcome. Consumer privacy and data protection are a topic that needs to be taken seriously. This is because the effect of poor methods of data protection could be catastrophic to individual and companies who fall victims of identity theft. This means that someone who is innocent could be imprisoned for committing a crime like fraud, yet their identities were stolen by malicious individuals. The findings from my study implicate that policy makers must review the strictures working currently on data protection, and consumer privacy. This is essential for the policy makers to come up with better methods for protecting consumer data. According to Goldenberg, privacy policy should focus on the remuneration and detriments of data collection, and not on the unlikely controversy as yet unverified by reliable evidence that those benefits do not exist (Goldenberg, 2001:89). . 6. Bibliography ALLEN, K. (2008). Viral marketing 100 success secrets. S.l, s.n.]. BLYTHE, J. (2005). Principles and practice of marketing. London, Thomson Learning. BRYCE, M. 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Critical marketing: issues in the contemporary marketing. Chichester: John Wiley and sons, LTD WATTS, D. J., & PERETTI, J. (2007). Viral marketing for the real world. [S.l.], Harvard Business School Pub. WHYATT, O. (2008). Which factory outlet center? The UK consumer’s selection criteria, 15 (4) 315-323. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Service. WOERNDL, M. PAPAGIANNIDIS, S, AND BOURLAKIS, M., & LI, F. (2008). Internet induced marketing techniques: Critical factors in viral marketing campaigns. International Journal of Business Science and Applied Management. 3(1). 33-45. 7. Appendices Appendix a: Profile of interviewees The population will be a group of people male and female who are between the ages of 20-40. The minimum education level is post high school education. Appendix b: Interview guide Introduction I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. My name is ____________________________ and I would like to talk to you about your experiences participating in FMCG project. Specifically, as one of the components of our overall program evaluation we are assessing company consumer privacy/ data protection in social media, so a marketing management strategy. The interview should take less than an hour. I will be taping the session because I don’t want to miss any of your comments. Although I will be taking some notes during the session, I can’t possibly write fast enough to get it all down. Because we’re on tape, please be sure to speak up so that we don’t miss your comments. All responses will be kept confidential. This means that your interview responses will only be shared with the research team members and we will ensure that any information we include in our report does not identify you as the respondent. Remember, you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to and you may end the interview at any time. Are there any questions about what I have just explained? Are you willing to participate in this interview? Interviewee Witness Date ________ _________ ____________ Questions 1. Are you aged between 20-40 years? Please state you age. 2. Do you have post high school education? Please provide a justification for your response. 3. Do you use the internet? How frequently do you use the internet? Please elaborate. 4. Please list the social media that you are active on. 5. Are you familiar with the topic ‘consumer privacy and data protection’? Please explain. 6. Do you think it is important to protect data? Please explain why. 7. Do you think that your information on the internet is safe / protected? 8. Do you think that measures being used to protect information on the internet are effective? Please explain. 9. Have you ever been a victim of lack of data protection? Please elaborate. 10. What would you do differently next time to protect your data? Please explain why. 11. What strategies, interventions, tools, etc., would you recommend for it to be sustained and/or scaled up in regard to consumer privacy/ data protection? Please provide a justification for your response. 12. What strategies, interventions, tools should be discontinued? Why? 13. What recommendations do you have for future consumer data protection? Close of interview Is there anything more you would like to add? I’ll be analyzing the information you and others gave me and submitting a draft report to the organization in one month. I’ll be happy to send you a copy to review at that time, if you are interested. Thank you for your time. Appendix c: Interview transcripts 1 Interviewer: Student Interviewee: Consumer Interview setting: The interview was conducted in one of the study rooms in the study area, at 6:00 PM Affiliation with interviewee: The interviewee is well informed on the topic of consumer privacy and data protection, an aspect that I need for my survey. (Start of interview) Interviewer: Are you aged between 20-40 years? Please state your age. Interviewee: Yes, I am 32 years old. Interviewer: Do you have post high school education? Please provide justification for your response. Interviewee: Yes I do, I have a bachelors degree in Marketing. Interviewer: Do you use the internet? How frequently do you use the internet? Please elaborate. Interviewee: Yes I use the internet. I use it every day while working and also for my private uses. Interviewer: Please list the social media that you are active on. Interviewee: Well, I have a facebook account, a twitter account, instargram account and email accounts with yahoo and Gmail. Interviewer: Are you familiar with the topic ‘consumer privacy and data protection’? Please explain. Interviewee: Yes I am familiar with the topic. It involves the safety of consumers and internet users’ private information in the internet. Interviewer: Do you think it is important to protect data? Please explain why. Interviewee: Yes it is important to protect data. This is because the data contains private and delicate information about internet users, and this information could be used wrongly by wrong dowers. Interviewee: Do you think that your information on the internet is safe / protected? Interviewee: Well, I am not contented with the current measures being used to protect data so no, I do not think that my information in the internet is safe. Interviewer: Do you think that measures being used to protect information on the internet are effective? Please explain. Interviewee: No I do not think that the measures being used to protect data on the internet are effective. This is because people can still manage to hack in to private accounts and access private information. Interviewer: Have you ever been a victim of lack of data protection? Please elaborate. Interviewee: Yes I have been a victim of lack of data protection. This happened when my facebook account was hacked in to and the person started making updates on my behalf. I have to delete the account. Interviewer: What would you do differently the next time to protect you data? Please explain why. Interviewee: Well, there is not much that I can do, but I will minimize the amount of information that I put in the internet. This is because the less information I have in the internet, the less worried I will be. Interviewer: What strategies, interventions, tools, e.t.c. would you recommend to be sustained and / or scaled up in regard to consumer privacy and data protection? Please provide a justification for your response. Interviewee: The Do Not Track strategy is effective because it minimizes the amount of consumer information in the internet. Interviewer: What strategies, inventions should be discontinued and why? Interviewee: Consumer transaction tracking should be stopped. This is because it collects so much information about consumers, yet the storage for the information is poor. Interviewer: What recommendations do you have for future consumer data protection? Interviewee: I would recommend that the traditional use of hard drives be used for storing data. This means that data will be stored outside the internet thus minimizing the possibility of data falling in to the wrong hands. Interviewer: Is there anything more you would like to add? Interviewee: Yes, I would like to say that it is crucial that consumer privacy and data protection issues be resolved and a permanent more effective method be invented and implemented. Interview transcripts 2 Interviewer: student Interviewee: consumer Interview setting: the interview was conducted in a study room in the study area, at 6:30 PM. Affiliation with interviewee: the interviewee is aware about the topic I am studying and the information I get from him will be useful in my study. (Start of second interview) Interviewer: Are you aged between 20-40 years? Please state your age. Interviewee: Yes. I am 25 years old. Interviewer: Do you have post high school education? Please provide a justification. Interviewee: Yes. I have a degree in engineering. Interviewer: Do you use the internet? How frequently do you use the internet? Please elaborate. Interviewee: Yes I use the internet while working and also for social purposes practically on a daily basis. Interviewer: Please list the social media that you are active on. Interviewee: I am active on facebook, twitter and on my space. Interviewer: Are you familiar with the topic consumer privacy and data protection? Please explain. Interviewee: Yes, this entails the safety of consumer data and consumer privacy while using the internet. Interviewer: Do you think it is important to protect data? Please explain why. Interviewee: Yes it is important to protect data. This is because the information is classified and should not be available to the general public. Interviewer: Do you think that your information on the internet is safe / protected? Interviewee: well, not really. Interviewer: Do you think that measures being used to protect information on the internet are effective? Please explain. Interviewee: No I do not think that measures being used are effective. A lot of private information can be accessed from the internet through illegal means. Interviewer: Have you ever been a victim of lack of data protection? Please elaborate. Interviewee: No, I have never been a victim of lack of data privacy. However I have heard of private accounts being hacked in to and people’s identities been stolen. Interviewer: What strategies, interventions, tools, e.t.c. would you recommend to be sustained and / or scaled up in regard to consumer privacy and data protection? Please provide a justification for your response. Interviewee: Passwords are effective, the more complex the better, and the Do Not Track strategy too. This is because passwords keep off hackers and that is why the more complex and long the password is the more effective is will be. The DNT strategy limits the amount of information that can be found in the internet on consumers. Interviewer: What strategies, interventions, tools should be discontinued and why? Interviewee: Consumer information tracking should be discontinued. It only puts consumers in greater risks as it collects very private information. Until better ways of protecting information can be developed, it should be discontinued. Interviewer: What recommendations do you have for future consumer data protection? Interviewee: I would recommend for consumer data to be stored by a single entity that will be set up for just that purpose instead of having differ companies formulating their own methods of data protection. This way it will be easy to sue the person involved in case of data leakage. Interviewer: is there anything more you would like to add? Interviewee: No. Thank you. Read More