Introduction

Summary

Businesses have sponsored traditional media through advertising campaigns for a long time. Commonly, television shows and radio broadcasts are interrupted by commercials, and magazines have pages dedicated to advertising third-party goods and services. In this context, advertising campaigns have labeled and targeted audiences to reach consumers in their market segment. Content-related targeting used to be the most popular form to reach potential consumers. To illustrate this idea in content-related targeting, advertisements for toys are likely broadcasted on the Disney Channel and men's athletic shoes are likely advertised on ESPN. When advertisers opt for content-related targeting, they base their choices both on customers’ preferences and stereotypes. For this reason, a study revealed that a “typical” female publication has up to 60% of all ads related to clothes and cosmetics, while 5% of the ads are related to high-tech devices.

So far, the marketing industry has gone beyond content-related targeting to reach segmented audiences. In the past decades, this same industry has developed advanced profi ling techniques to grasp its consumers’ needs more accurately. One of these well-known techniques is referred to as behavioral targeting. With this technique, consumers are categorized by their personal traits as well as by their actions and practices. Years ago, in the United States the department store Target asked its analytics department if it was possible to discover consumers’ pregnancies through their purchasing habits. Knowing whether a consumer is pregnant is relevant for the retail industry, because it is a time when consumers’ needs change, and they seek new products. Target's analytics sector reviewed the shopping fi les of all female customers who had registered for baby giftlistings. The team discovered over 24 products that, used as proxies, allowed them to calculate a pregnancy prediction score for every client who had a loyalty card. The pregnancy score was then used to target direct personalized advertisement to clients. One day, a man complained to Target's service sector and alleged that his teenage daughter had received coupons in the mail for baby products, and he accused the store of trying to convince his daughter to get pregnant. Later, the man apologized confi rming that his daughter was indeed pregnant.