Is E-personalisation a danger for the customers privacy? : A study on JIBS students

Abstract: Background: From a marketing perspective, personalisation of online advertising is a very promising way of reaching customers and will play an increasingly important role in the future. Personalisation on the Internet is far more widespread than in the offline world and can cover all online interactions when it comes to the question of what information to personalise. It directly relates to the issue of privacy of personal data and creates a need for a privacy policy that clarifies the relation between personalisation and privacy. Problem: Personalisation represents one of the main advantages of the Internet and al-lows marketers to target individual customers directly and adapt their marketing communications to the user’s preferences and needs. On the one hand, personalisation can give customers access to better service, products and communication and provides an experience of one. On the other, privacy issues related to the Internet and personalisation in particular are a contemporary topic of growing interest. Internet users are increasingly aware of the fact that websites collect information about them and their privacy concerns are growing. Personal information is necessary for personalising advertisements. Therefore, this development contradicts the customer’s increased demand for personalisation and the trend towards narrowly targeted marketing. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore if personalised online advertising could be perceived as a danger to customer’s privacy or on the other hand, facilitate the purchase decision process. Method: In order to answer the purpose and the research questions, a survey has been conducted with 152 JIBS students asking them about their opinion on e-advertising and their fears about it. After the questionnaires had been collected, different analysis such as univariate analysis and bivariate analysis has been done using SPSS. Conclusions: In summary it can be said that the respondent’s general perception of personalised e-ads is negative; they do not believe that they make shopping easier and they see a danger for their privacy in how companies collect the customer’s information and use it.