Wouldn’t it be good if the next time you wandered into a shop, a sales assistant said: “Thank for you visiting us, here is £1 for giving us your attention.” You could set off in the morning skint and end the day with a pocket bulging with readies.
Just maybe, the Internet equivalent of that service is about to be launched.
Pure profile, www.pureprofile.co.uk, claims to turn the Internet shopping experience on its head. Customers type in data about themselves and what products they are after. Merchants can then send these individuals messages about their relevant offerings, and pay their prospective customers for the privilege.
At core, the idea extends the Google key word advertising concept. Perhaps the most cost effective form of advertising ever invented, Google key words allow merchants to carefully target their marketing, paying per visit to their web site from prospective purchasers who typed in certain key words on the Google search engine.
But Pureprofile takes this push technology a stage further.
Remember, Google went from nothing to the massive media giant it is today in six years; maybe Pureprofile, or a company offering a similar service, could duplicate this explosive growth.
There are problems with the concept, however. We would question the motivation of individuals who are paid money for receiving ads: are they really serious about buying the product?
Retail is in a mess. Margins are under enough pressure as it is, and given this, can retailers afford to give money back to customers without sacrificing something in return, such as price?
Then there is brand advertising. So far, the Internet has failed to become a medium for creating brand loyalty, and until it manages this, it will never pick up the lion’s share of the advertising cake. Unless, that is, push technology becomes so dominant that brand loyalty loses its hold, and product and its key features, becomes the overriding purchasing driver.
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