Will “smarter” marketing end social discrimination? A critical review
| Published date | 12 August 2013 |
| Pages | 132-143 |
| Date | 12 August 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-07-2013-0022 |
| Author | Frances Grodzinsky,Andra Gumbus,Stephen Lilley |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance |
Will “smarter” marketing
end social discrimination?
A critical review
Frances Grodzinsky, Andra Gumbus and Stephen Lilley
Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, Connecticut, USA
Abstract
Purpose – There are two claims made by the web marketing/advertising industry. By collecting,
managing, and miningdata, companies serve consumer’s best interests, and by adoptingsophisticated
analytics, webmarketers avoid discriminationsthat disserve individuals. Althoughthe paper shares an
interest in endingsocial discrimination, the paper ismore circumspect about pronounced individualism
andtechnological fixes.Despite its appeal,or perhaps because of it,the paper should not acceptthe claim at
facevalue. The paper argues thatsocial discriminationmay not disappear undersmarter marketing; more
overt formsmay wane only to be replaced by more subtleforms. The paper aims to discuss theseissues.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper compares the two most important techniques of
“smarter” marketing – predict ive analytics and Facebook’s so cial graph – with current
discriminatory practices of weblinin g and e-scoring. While noting advances ag ainst overt
discrimination, the paper describes how smarter marketing allows for covert forms.
Findings – Innovative strategies to record and mine users’ tastes and social connectivity for
marketing purposes open the way for covert social discrimination.
Originality/value – The paper provides a critical assessment of two claims made by the web
marketing/advertising industry: by monitoring consumer web activity and collecting, managing, and
mining data, companies serve consumer’s best interests, and by adopting sophisticated analytics, web
marketers avoid discriminations that disserve individuals.
Keywords Data mining, E-commerce, Privacy, Socialdiscrimination
Paper type Viewpoint
Introduction
International Business Machine’s commercial, “Smarter marketing: seeing custome rs
as individuals”, which aired in August 2012 depicts a group of female joggers
conspicuous in their matching outfits running past a set of men wearing identical suits.
The narrator explains that “Companies use to view us as demographics because they
couldn’t see what made people different”. The suited men in the commercial expose
this marketing shortcoming by removing their suit jackets to reveal a diversity of
clothing styles, hence individualities. The narrator states:
Today retailers from the US to Japan are using analytics to find insight in social chatter,
reviews, and sales transactions, helping some companies increase online revenue up to 50%
by offering customers an experience as unique as they are. That’s what I’m working on;
I’m an IBMer. Let’s build a smarter planet.
This IBM commercial dramatizes two claims – one general and the other specific –
made by the web marketing/advertising industry:
(1) by monitoring consumer web activity and collecting, managing, and mining
data, companies serve consumer’s best interests; and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1477-996X.htm
Received 9 July 2013
Revised 20 September 2013
Accepted 20 September 2013
Journal of Information,
Communication and Ethics in Society
Vol. 11 No. 3, 2013
pp. 132-143
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1477-996X
DOI 10.1108/JICES-07-2013-0022
JICES
11,3
132
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