Centralization of Identity

First, mass markets fragmented into many, smaller niche markets. Then, those niche markets fragmented into individual fingerprints. Now each social influencer has their own identity and their own personal fingerprint online reflecting their personal interests and behaviors. And we have the tracking mechanisms and behavioral analysis techniques to use that unique fingerprint.

Another phenomenon that’s closely related to the new demographics of individual identity: the centralization of identity in personal profiles. Although there’s a lot of loud pushback from privacy advocates on this, your personal profile is becoming more and more like an online ID.

It’s not quite centralized yet. Your medical profiles are over here and your social profile is over there, while your friend profiles, work status and personal status are somewhere else entirely. But, while this data might exist in separate places for a while, it seems inevitable that your disparate profile information will start to coalesce at some point soon. We’re already seeing some of that with Facebook Connect.

Should we be afraid of our online identities destroying our offline privacy? In the short term, we should continue to be vigilant, but be open to selective changes. Whatever happens, fears about privacy issues will eventually be more than outweighed by the benefit because there’s a better understanding of the user. As marketers we don’t really want to reach somebody who’s not going to be interested in our product. Understanding the consumer better means we won’t end up serving them messages they don’t want or need. What an improvement!

This could still be many years away, but when it happens it’s going to change the environment. We aren’t going to need to see a lot of messages that we don’t care about because it’s a waste of money for the marketer, the advertiser and the company. Plus, it creates a negative impression for the consumer.

On the flipside, when centralized profiles are available, we’ll be able to get things that are much more relevant to us. This can be based not only on interest, but also on timing. Say it’s dinnertime and you’re driving by a Quiznos. An advertiser knows which chain you like and also knows you’re likely to have three kids in the car. Voila! you get an electronic coupon for “buy three subs, get one free” sent to you in real time. Of course there would likely be an incentive for you to forward to your friends or neighbors.

Tie together the interest level and the timing, and you actually have a stronger messaging system – because more relevant messaging means fewer irrelevant interruptions.

People talk about how invasive that might be. But, at this point, I feel pretty invaded by the billboards that are all along the highway, too. I’d rather see that billboard come down and have a much more relevant message come to me personally via text.