One of the key elements in advertising and marketing in recent years is data. Those responsible for corporate and brand strategy have realized the value of knowing consumers well. Once you know what consumers are like and what they want, shaping messages and adjusting products to those needs and those criteria is much easier. It is easier to offer what they want to receive and it is also much easier to get all of it to fit the audience much better.

But, at the same time that those responsible for strategy have realized the power of data and what it allows to do, consumers themselves have become increasingly aware of its potential and the situation in which they put it. Although studies have shown that consumers want brand messages to be relevant and not waste their time with elements that do not interest them, they have also shown how they are increasingly critical of companies due to their position as personal "information hoarders" and the fact that they know too much about them. Your concern for privacy is on the rise.

All this creates a complicated situation and it could be said that it is even paradoxical. Companies and brands need this information but consumers do not want to give it to them, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, consumers do not want companies to know everything about them but they do not want them to send them any information and fill them with messages which are not exactly what they are interested in receiving.

Is there a way to make each other happy? In recent years, different regulations Last Database have been put in place that have made consumers have more control over their personal data and over how companies access their personal information. The European Union regulations, which generated a lot of tension between companies during their start-up, was the first big case, but it will be neither the only nor the last. The envisaged privacy law in California goes along the same lines.

Give more power to the consumer
But, perhaps, the key is not only to change the laws, but rather to make consumers have a much more active part in how they position themselves and what they do with their own data, that they decide exactly what they want companies to do. know and what they do not want them to use to reach them. And yes, in a way that is what European law seeks and wants, although it is likely that consumers are not exactly clear about what happens with it (except that they had to receive thousands of emails from thousands of companies a while ago) and that, when they visit a site, they end up giving a yes by default , I accept all cookies without much further thought.

As they explain in a column on FastCompany , consumers have, in fact, no idea where the information that companies have about them actually comes from. It is not only about the data that we all think about, such as what the phone "chiva" or what has been done on the internet, but also between the data that companies buy and sell (they start from the US legal framework ) There are also financial data or public information (which in this case is neither sold nor bought: it is information accessible to everyone).

In the US alone and in 2018 alone, companies spent $ 19.2 billion, 17.5% more than the previous year, to buy information about consumers from third parties.

The concrete and valuable data
The data market is therefore immense and the information that circulates seems almost endless. But also, is it really the best information? A Deloitte study not long ago pointed out that company managers themselves believed that 71% of purchased information was between 0 and 50% wrong.

That is where the point that they contribute in the column comes in and that gives for an interesting debate. Perhaps the key is not so much in having the information but in having the information. That is, use the information that consumers want to share with the company and in the way that they want the company to know.

Instead of accumulating data and more data, what you do is accumulate the information that consumers want the company to know. Importantly, when consumers provide information themselves without being pressured, the data is much more accurate than in other situations. If I tell you something because I want to, I will tell you the truth : that is the basic philosophy for all this.

Consumers also do want to share information ... as long as it serves them well. 57% of consumers, according to Forrester data, would give personal data to companies if they personalize their offers and adjust what they are being sent to the data. That is, if the advertising is going to be more interesting, consumers agree to give their personal data (or at least the data that interests them).

For companies, this approach to things is also more interesting. Accumulating the most important or most interesting data means that you are not burdened by an avalanche of data (which is what happens now), which frees you from dying from excess information and al