Personalization in Marketing: How Do People Perceive Personalization Practices in the Business World

Abstract

With emerging digital technologies, personalization has become a key activity for marketing strategy to gain competitive success in customer relationships. The aim of this study is to develop and empirically assess a general measurement model of perceived personalization. Multiple data gathering processes and rigorous empirical testing procedures are employed to assess and validate the proposed measurement model. The perceived personalization scale developed in the study rests on the focus of what is personalized and includes three main categories: (1) individuallevel, (2) social-level, and (3) situation-based personalization. A multidimensional measure of personalization is developed based on these categories and is validated via several tests, including a test of nomological validity exploring the effects of perceived personalization on critical customer responses such as positive emotions, negative emotions, perceived sincerity, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. These findings shed light on and open new avenues of development for this growing practice for both researchers and practitioners in marketing.