The implications of incomplete and spurious personal information disclosures for direct marketing practice

Abstract

The self-disclosure of non-transactional, individual-level consumer information for direct marketing purposes — eg interests, beliefs, competitor spending habits and future purchase intentions — is essentially voluntary in nature. This raises the possibility that such information may be to some degree incomplete and unreliable. A review of the literature, however, reveals that this has received little attention and, consequently, the implications for direct marketing practice have been overlooked. Using 157 personal interviews, this study quantifies typical levels of personal information omission and falsification in voluntary disclosures. The types of personal information that consumers tend to omit and falsify are identified, and an understanding of the underlying reasons is provided with a consideration of the implications for direct marketing practice. Whilst the findings indicate typically low levels of personal information omission and falsification, these are shown to have a potentially significant impact on the profitability of companies employing direct marketing methods.