RGPD - to General Data Protection Regulation European data protection: experts are stepping up their conferences to raise advertisers' awareness of the new European regulation aimed at strengthening the protection of personal data, which is due to come into force on 24 May 2018.
I'm not sure that consumers see this clearly... or even care much: none of this is going to change their daily lives as social network addicts! If they're invited to look into the matter, they'll realise that there must be something in return for everything they use for free on the web, but there's no real cause for alarm.
However, brands should be a little more vigilant... and not just because the European Data Protection Authority is keeping a close eye on things, but more simply because they run the risk of tiring out their customers: while they are not really worried about what they can do with their personal data, they are not too keen on requests that are too intrusive, such as geolocation for example.
Contrary to many assumptions, the relationship with brands in the digital world is no stronger than in the real world - IRL = In Real Life, but hasn't the virtual world become more real for many of them?
The real question is: why do people become fans (or friends, or followers, depending on the network) of a brand?
Because we love it? Not necessarily!
How many consumers have been invited (= obliged) to like a page on Facebook, just to enter a competition or benefit from a promotional offer: can we talk about a real attachment to the brand? And I'm not even going to mention the pseudo-friends created miles apart by little Moroccan or Indian hands...
You often become a follower of a brand on Twitter because you have an after-sales problem and in order to exchange direct messages, you have to follow each other: not very glamorous, either!
In the digital world, brands like to harass consumers: there's even a name for it = "pestering". retargetingit's called, and the kings of the retargeting are even French - Criteo. It's tiring, when you've just bought a coffee machine or a washing machine, to be bombarded with ads for coffee machines or washing machines that you're obviously not going to buy.
Harassment also takes the form of mailings - and this is where marketers are going to have their work cut out with the famous RGPD that we mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Normally, the only databases that can be used should be double opt-in: not only have Internet users ticked a box to indicate that they agree to receive advertising messages, but they have also confirmed their choice by clicking on a confirmation e-mail.
Today, try unsubscribing from emails that displease you or simply annoy you: very quickly, you'll see them coming back from other, equally uninteresting senders.
In the digital age, brands are content to replicate recipes inherited from the old world of fairs and advertising: we catch your attention with a funny video, we hope to have aroused your interest when you 'like' it - and we keep our fingers crossed that desire and purchase will follow!
Yet even in the old world, the AIDA model didn't really work - apart from fairs and exhibitions, for which Lewis had developed it in the 19th century.th century.
Perhaps instead of focusing on recipes that are sometimes outdated, digital brands should ask themselves what their value is - i.e. what consumers buy them for; and what the subtle balance is between brand equity, the reality of the products and/or services and the company's social values.
The digital world is one of speed: not necessarily a good thing if the consequence is that agitation replaces reflection, and tactics replace strategy.
