The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

I'm always intrigued by such things as this, especially when I don't accept the behavioral marketing industry's definition of "behavioral". I often think the behavioral marketing industry has taken lessons from the pharma industry or vice versa.

The pharma industry periodically comes up with some chemical mixture that produces certain effects on certain people. It then goes to marketing people and says, "We know this chemical mixture stops people from doing this. Come up with some sexy/interesting/but a little scary name for this so people will want to buy our chemical mixture to stop doing it.

Behavioral marketing as defined by the industry seems to be playing the same game. "We know we can produce this report. Let's give it a sexy/interesting/but a little scary name so people will buy into it."

But I digress...

Mr. Chester claims that a mission of the Center for Digital Democracy is "...How do you ensure that the emerging media systems evolve in a way that supports robust debate, diversity of expression, in-depth news and public affairs, institutions that provide the public with an array of consumer and cultural information as well as the healthy advertising and entertainment?"

Unfortunately, this reminds me of Expertise -- Who Decides?. There's a great difference between supporting debate and the debate itself. The debate itself requires people of different views willing to entertain each other's views. Likewise, diversity of expression requires diverse expressions to be tolerated, not just allowed (think Dixie Chicks).

The interview goes on with whether or not the many or the few will direct the use of Behavioral Targeting. Take a step back from that. Even if the many direct the use of BT, if the many decide that 2+2=5, then the use of BT or any technology places people at risk.

Later in the interview Mr. Chester states "Nobody wants a system where there is a strong force supporting subliminal marketing or advertising. You don't want politicians or cultural icons being able to craft online campaigns to get you to engage in behaviors which may be out of your consciousness. That is my perspective. People ask me, what is the harm if today it's just about [advertising] a trip or a car? But we know that these tools are going to be used -- if not already -- by politicians and others. I am worried that there will be technology designed to drive behaviors."

I agree. There's a non-existent line between propaganda and advertising. The line exists or not based on what you're attempting to do. The one cure is a sophisticated, educated populace that's capable of recognizing when that line exists and doesn't. That "sophisticated, educated" thing brings us back to 2+2=5 and the Dixie Chicks.

And this is where I suggest people look at NextStage's Principles. We state right up front "We know what our technology can do, probably better than anybody else out there. We know it can hurt people if used improperly, and we know there are people out there who wouldn't care if people are hurt so long as their profits keep going up.
"We're not like those people. Don't get us wrong. We enjoy profits as much as anybody.
"We just have certain ethical constraints on how we get those profits, and some of those ethical constraints are listed here as Principles. If you want to work for or with us you should know these principles exist and are adhered to in this company."

We're that strange company that's turned potential clients away because we believed they would use our technology abusively.

Sorry, we can't allow that. There's already enough of that in the world, don't you think? No need for us to contribute.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Upcoming Trainings:

• Audience Focused Optimization

• DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
• Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.