The NOIZ team partnered up with Hong Kong based coworking space and incubation hub CoCoon Friday, August 23rd, 2019.
CoCoon is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs achieve their goals, and as part of this dedication, they have an entrepreneur program set up for students and recent graduates to learn from a variety of companies about the BIG ideas of the future.
NOIZ was lucky enough to be invited to the stage to discuss one of these BIG ideas.
It was the decision of NOIZ Marketing Technologist Connor Doyle to cover the topic of Personalization. He began by giving a definition of personalization: “It is the act of creating user experiences that are unique to each individual.”
He asked the audience why would businesses want to personalize experiences for their customers?
Very simply, one of the students said “money; make more sales.” That student was absolutely right.
Personalization is rippling into so many industries, originating from consumer tech.
Office walls and products exist only in the digital world for some companies. For others, they are going through Digital Transformations, trying to make sense of everything.
It is the case for many businesses today, that their customers, potential partners and leads are all online. Information on competition as well; the ability to communicate quickly… the Internet has changed society greatly, but is this change to digital good for society?
Doyle spoke about the need to find balance, stating that businesses create personalized experiences because we, as consumers, prefer it.
“I don’t like to see ads about real estate in the US; I have no desire to purchase a home there, at this time. I do, however, enjoy seeing ads about movies playing in Hong Kong, and new art performances coming through town. Those ad value to my life.”
That is personalization, knowing how to add value to your customers’ lives. Doyle also brought up an example of real-life personalization to help students understand further. “Think of a store clerk or stylist remembering you from your last visit and knowing what you like, or what will look good on you, or what will go well with your previous purchase.”
Having a personalized experience is nice, enjoyable, and comfortable, but staying in a comfort zone for too long can be dangerous for one’s growth.
Doyle talked about three dangers to personalization, the biggest being Individualism. As we are caressed into extreme personal comfort zones, we interact less with those directly around us. It can be good to have your “me-time”, but not always.
“This is why we need to find a balance in our lives, to prevent us from becoming an isolationist society.”
The other problems Doyle brought up were those of Data Breaches and Data Leaks. Referring to Cambridge Analytica to describe a Data Leak. No actual “hacking” was done, Cambridge Analytica simply piggy-backed off Facebook’s platform. Whereas with a Data Breach, an intrusion of a company’s system needs to occur; like what happened to over 400 million Marriott customer records in 2018.
Companies need to be both responsible and ethical with consumer data, in how it’s collected, used and stored. It’s fair that companies like Facebook offer their products to us in exchange for our data, but perhaps they could make it optional.
Doyle asked the students “Would you pay Facebook 20 USD a month to use all of their products, free of ads and targeted content?” All of the students said “no.”
This solidifies the need to find balance, yet again. “We will not stop using the platforms that personalize our experiences, so we should be learning to coexist with personalization in a way that is good for society” Doyle stated, closing the topic and, in a way, leaving the fate of the world in the hands of the students.
From there, students broke up into groups and discussed personalization further. After this discussion, a phenomenal question was asked. “Is there a tool that parents can use to monitor the data that their children give out to the world?”
Sadly, Connor did not know of such a tool, suggesting that perhaps the girl who asked the question could be the first to create such a product. Either that, or he said the alternative would be to just not give your kids a phone until their 18. This got many gasps, so hopefully one of the entrepreneurial students starts making this parental data monitoring tool quick! Otherwise, they’ll have to become strict parents!
To see the deck that Connor presented during the event, go ahead and click this link here: http://bit.ly/Future_Personalization
Find out more about NOIZ and the future of personalization by visiting the NOIZ website: https://noizchain.com/
