Ask your average person born around the turn of the century, meaning this one, about ‘real time marketing’ and you’re likely to get a moralistic ear-raid.
They’ll talk about the theoretical evils of the NSA, randomly but comprehensively gathering personal data about any number of individuals supposedly in the name of our collective well being.
Even though almost everyone with a smartphone makes tracking their every move relatively easy with constant check-ins and status updates, there remains a deeply entrenched paranoia when it comes to any organization ‘spying’ on us citizens, even if we’re part of the problem by being so carefree in our digital communications.
‘We’ don’t want ‘them’ to be intrusive, but ‘they’ don’t want ‘us’ to remain elusive. Therein lies the philosophical paradox.
In short: How can an honest marketing scheme be pervasive without being invasive?
That is the rub, of course and it’s a sea of gray area that marketers must learn to navigate..