Despite surround-sound rhetoric that the marketing industry is entering a new era of data-driven communications, concerns are rising that the information underpinning this person-level targeting may not be nearly as reliable as brands have been led to believe.
In July 2017, The New York Times ran an article reporting that Procter & Gamble had posted complimentary Gillette razors – complete with “happy 18th birthday” messaging – to a 50 year-old female academic in Alabama. It was one of many cases of mistaken identity apparently undermining Gillette’s long-running direct marketing campaign.
Such mishaps represent a blow for a company...