One of the jobs of a marketer is to instill in the consumer a sense of trust — trust in the brand, trust in the product or service, trust in how the company handles their personal data, and so on.
That latter job is often fulfilled by putting a privacy notice on the site. Sometimes we do it because it's the law in our country; sometimes, in an effort to show people we're a responsible company.
But are we shooting ourselves in the proverbial foot?
What does Science Tell Us about Privacy Notices?
That's what Aaron Brough and his colleagues set out to discover. Dr. Brough is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He is the co-author of a new scientific research study called “The Bulletproof Glass Effect: Unintended Consequences of Privacy Notices.”
I spoke with him about his study recently. Here’s a short clip from the conversation:
Among the other topics we chatted about:
- Whether that reduction in purchase intent also translated into a reduction in the perception of a product’s value.
- What differences there are between generations and genders
- The surprising effect that happened when he tested having people click a privacy link, and that link resulting in a 404 file not found error
- How marketers who can’t control whether or not there’s a privacy notice, or what it says, can counter some of its negative effects.
And much more. That full conversation is on our podcast's Premium Feed.
