me watch, me wallet, me spectacles, me testicles
CRM has always been about how companies 'engage' and sell to you, not how you engage with them.
They collect the data - some you know about, some you don't - and use that data to put together programmes and offers that they think you might like.
Done well it's personal, relevant and expected but even in extreme permission marketing circumstances it's still almost always been a seller driven mechanism.
Yes, I'm simplifying but...
What if you want to advertise what you’re after?
What if you can access all of your purchase history, in detail and use your own data to invite vendors to pitch you with relevant offers based on your actual wants and needs at any given point.
What if you can tell them what you're willing to pay and back that up with other data you are willing to share- about your relationships, your movements, other stuff going on in your life that might make you a valuable customer.
The VRM mantra has been 'everyone is making money off consumer data except the consumer'.
It's early days but Google Wallet could be the next major shift in the transference of power.
They say...
'In the past few thousand years, the way we pay has changed just three times—from coins, to paper money, to plastic cards.
Now we’re on the brink of the next big shift.
Google Wallet has been designed for an open commerce ecosystem. It will eventually hold many if not all of the cards you keep in your leather wallet today. And because Google Wallet is a mobile app, it will be able to do more than a regular wallet ever could, like storing thousands of payment cards and Google Offers but without the bulk. Eventually your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via NFC.'
In Mobile as 7th of the Mass Media (2008), Tomi T Ahonen compiled the then '7 Unique Benefits of [Mobile].
1. The first personal mass media channel
2. Permanently carried
3. Always on
4. Has a built-in payment mechanism
5. Available at point of creative impulse.
6. Near-perfect audience data
7. Captures social context of media consumptionIn 2008 point 4 indicated that certain purchases, of digital inventory principally, were possible as part of your plan - plus full blown mCommerce albiet still a bit of a twinkle.
In 2011 people are now in control of nearly all their experience in terms of how and when they decide to interact with or notice messaging.
Almost the only thing left to take back is the 'control' of one's own data.
Perhaps the Personal Data Vault might be an 8th Unique Benefit?
