Oct 3, 2013 (Thu): MasterCard on Wednesday has released a global study – Digital Sharing and Trust Project and it shows that consumers actually shed their “real-world” identities when they go online to assume “digital personas” that better reflect how they feel, what actions they take around their personal information and how much value they place on their own data.
According to the study, the consumers are categorized in five digital groups as below:
- Open Sharers – the most highly digital group of the five and tend to lead less risk-averse online activities. Half of them are online more than 10 times per day and when they share their personal information, they expect deals, access and offers in return. 21 per cent of online consumers fall into this category, majority of them (60%) are male.
- Simply Interactors – the most dedicated social networkers, yet they are not particularly tech-savvy consumers. When it comes to online shopping, 80 per cent will research products online, but 63 per cent still prefer to shop in person. Though they are aware of targeted marketing, they don’t see their data as valuable and thus don’t express significant concern about it. 21 per cent of online consumers fall into this category.
- Solely Shoppers – This group of people are rely on the Internet for savvy shopping research and purchases. 90 per cent of this group’s members research products online before buying and half use their mobile phone to price check in-store in order to get the best deals. However, they have low awareness of target marketing as only 37 perc ent know that social media sites use their personal data to inform ads. 21 per cent of online consumers fall into this category.
- Passive Users – This group of people are not fully convinced of the Internet’s value and therefore tend to spend the least amount of time online of all the personas. 20 per cent of online consumers fall into this category.
- Proactive Protectors – This group of people are highly aware of targeted marketing but they are unlikely to use social networks and the most guarded with their privacy settings of all the personas – taking steps to protect and control their digital footprint. 17 per cent of online consumers fall into this category.
