MANILA – There are five global personas when it comes to online behavior, according to a new study.
MasterCard recently released the results of the Digital Sharing and Trust Project, which showed that consumers usually replace their “real world identities” when they go online, taking on “digital personas.”
Each category, MasterCard said, is based on the kind and amount of information that a person is willing to share.
“Nearly 2.5 billion people around the globe use the Internet every day,” Theodore Iacobuzio, vice president of MasterCard’s Global Insights Group which produced the study, said in a statement.
“This research shows that regardless of who they are and where they live, they all share something in common when it comes to how they act and behave online – these five unique personality types. It also shows us that when consumers go online, characteristics such as age, gender or nationality become secondary and they instead assume a sense of what we refer to as ‘social citizenship.’”
The Digital Sharing and Trust Project included both qualitative and quantitative consumer research conducted from November 2012 to March 2013 in the United States, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, India, South America, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Colombia.
It covered more than 9,000 digital consumers aged 16 to 65 who are engaged in some type of online activity at least once a week.
Here are the five types of online users, as mentioned in the study:
1. Open Sharers – This persona accounts for 20% of online consumers, and includes mostly males. They are said to be the “most highly digital” group of the five categories and tend to lead less risk-averse online activities. Half of them are online more than ten times a day and when they share their personal information, they expect deals, access and offers in return.
2. Simply Interactors – This persona accounts for 20% of online consumers. They include some of the most dedicated social networkers, but are not particularly tech-savvy consumers. When it comes to online shopping, 80% of them will research products online, but 63% 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.
3. Solely Shoppers – This persona accounts for 21% of online consumers, and is characterized by their reliance on the Internet for savvy shopping research and purchases. About 90% of them research products online before buying, while half of them use their mobile phones to check for best deals. They have low awareness of target marketing as only 37% know that social media sites use their personal data to inform ads.
4. Passive Users – This persona accounts for 20% of online consumers. They are not fully convinced of the Internet’s value and tend to spend the least amount of time online, whether for shopping or social networking. They are willing to trade their data for something in return.
5. Proactive Protectors – This persona accounts for 17% of online consumers. They are highly aware of targeted marketing, with 82% of them knowledgeable that marketers can target them based on their search and browsing history. They are unlikely to use social networks and the most guarded with their privacy settings of all personas, taking steps to protect and control their digital footprint.
“In today’s digital world, consumers are continuing to spend more of their time and money online,” Iacobuzio said. “That’s all the more reason that understanding these five distinct personas will be important for a variety of audiences, but perhaps most especially for retailers and marketers.”
Other findings in the study showed that 60% of consumers know how to change the privacy settings on their web browser; 64% believe their personal data has value to merchants and advertisers; and 55% appreciate when companies tailor offers to them based on the information they share.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
