The Effects of Personalized Marketing Communication on Consumers' Attitudes and Behaviors and the Role of Privacy Violation

Abstract: An increasingly digital world is providing companies with many different possibilities to collect and take advantage of consumer data. Many researchers have shown positive effects of using consumer data for personalization, but the negative consequences noticed by technology researchers have not yet been investigated in relation to personalization. The main purpose of this study is to investigate in what way personalized marketing communication affects consumer's attitudes and behaviors, and what role intrusiveness plays in the relationships. This was done by incorporating different types of personal information in email communication. Two quantitative experimental studies were conducted comparing groups exposed to marketing communication including different types of information. The first study was based on fictive scenarios including 723 respondents and the second was performed in a real life setting including 1874 respondents. The results showed that personalized marketing communication is perceived as more relevant and useful than non-personalized marketing communication, resulting in more positive consumer attitudes and behaviors. It was also revealed that even though personalization caused a feeling of intrusiveness that had a negative impact, the benefit of receiving a useful communication message from a company was much greater resulting in an overall positive outcome.