Resource discusses cyber-profiling and data mining among travel websites

Plano, TX -- (SBWire) -- 07/25/2012 --Marketing Strategies for Businesses urges online businesses to take their audiences’ privacy wishes further into account during market segmentation.

“Personalizing your products and services can easily verge on hyperactive data mining or cyber-profiling. Customers should never feel like their privacy is being compromised,” K. Chatman, creator of Marketing Strategies for Businesses, said.

In a headline-making story broken by a major US publication, one of the top travel sites has seemingly discerned between Windows and Mac users in returning searches for hotel prices. Apparently, Mac users see more expensive offers at the top of their pages than Windows users.

The travel sites’ managers have admitted that they, as any other travel site, have noticed Mac users’ tendency to reserve five-star accommodations since October. But they insist they show a constant price for the same room to all users, regardless of their browsing device’s operating systems. The site is only shuffling results so Mac users get pricey alternatives first, but they can always opt to arrange the results by ‘lowest price’ first.

“Targeting offers according to a consumer’s spending history with the site does not make a company unscrupulous and is one of the good internet marketing tips. With travelers increasingly demanding less time in weighing options, companies have a lot at stake in reckoning with tastes and tweaking query responses accordingly,” Mr. Chatman said.

Segmenting consumers well beyond criteria such as location and browsing history is becoming the norm as businesses race to offer the best deals to online consumers. Thus, from the outset, sites should be transparent in the way they track and target users. Even though companies may participate in Cyber-profiling or data mining; they should continually reassure customers that they have their best interests in mind,” K.A. Chatman said.

To do that, companies should give consumers more options in the way of privacy and disclose segmentation methods as fit.

“Consumers should feel as if they are presented with relevant products and services that resonate with them according to the information they have volunteered during the registration process, for example,” concluded Mr. Chatman.

About Marketing Strategies for Businesses
Marketing Strategies for Businesses provides strategies that businesses can use to achieve their revenue related goals. It also includes tips of how businesses can derive insights via the use of analytics. To learn more visit http://marketingstrategiesforbusinesses.com/internet-marketing-tips/.