Understanding effects of personalization in digital marketing
Final Report Abstract
Companies aim at increasing the relevancy of their advertising messages to consumers, using individual data collected in their own distribution channels as well as in social media networks. While product recommendations exploit existing consumer preferences, companies also increasingly adapt contents according to individual mindsets. However, little is known about the diverse effects of these types of personalization. Previous research has mainly analyzed the effectiveness of personalizing contents in terms of click and purchase conversions based on mindset variables such as personality traits. In our projects, we aimed at broadening the view on the use of mindset variables in digital marketing and better understand processes and moderating conditions of their effects. Across three research projects, we investigated how consumers respond to contents that are adapted to personal values and lifestyles as well as individual possessions of consumers. The projects encompassed purchase and consumption decisions in diverse product domains as well as in the context of sustainability. In the sustainability context, we explored the question of how personalization can contribute to making the urgent topics of environmental and climate protection better accessible for a segment of consumers who have not occupied themselves strongly with these topics yet. For these projects, we also developed new methods to measure mindsets (i.e., value orientations) and include interventions in experimental designs. Overall, our findings suggest that the effects of mindset personalization might be strongly context-dependent. That is, we aimed at identifying conditions under which mindset personalization leads to positive but also unintended outcomes. In the projects, we also tried to derive an understanding of the underlying processes. Our research contributes to the enfolding insights on personalization as a contextual phenomenon. The research projects are currently in different stages of the publication process. In the future, the findings might support the enfolding discussion among decision-makers in companies and in public policy-domains regarding the use of personalization technologies, but also inform consumers about practices and outcomes of mindset personalization.
