Data-based marketing within customer relations management: A research to determine the evaluations of customers towards personal data usage in marketing applications

With the developments in information technologies, the widespread use of the internet, and the effects of industrial revolutions, the understanding, and practices of marketing have changed, as in many areas. The transition from the traditional marketing understanding to the data-based marketing approach has been possible with the increase in the amount of data produced by the digitalized customer and the tendency of the institutions to use this data to convey their marketing messages to their customers. Especially in the Industry 4.0 period, the opportunities created by components such as big data, augmented reality, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence in the marketing field in terms of presentation techniques have been integrated by institutions through database-supported programs. In this context, marketing has evolved based on the prioritization of one-to-one marketing and data-based marketing as well as the company-customer relationship. Today, with customer relationship management, we come across an understanding called Marketing 4.0, which is customer-oriented, more systematic, makes use of software processes, and strengthens its analysis ability. In particular, marketers, who benefit from the data created by their customers in the digital environment, transmit a large number of personalized marketing messages. It is aimed to achieve customer satisfaction, maintain loyalty, improve the experience and direct the behavior in accordance with the marketing strategies of the institution, with customized content transmitted to the customer by using personal data such as name, gender, age, interests, lifestyle, location, online visit times, voice, image. Although this process creates a marketing system that is more suitable and optimized for customer needs and demands, a data security problem arises because the studies are focused on personal information about the customer. Within the scope of this study, which aims to raise awareness of the advantages and disadvantages of using personal data in marketing applications, it can be stated that customers who are exposed to a large number of marketing messages will have a more positive perspective toward companies that fulfill the conditions that will ensure the security of their customer's personal data. In this context, this study, it is aimed to determine how the use of personal data in data-based marketing studies within the scope of customer relationship management affects the relationship between the customer and the company, based on the opinions of the customers on the use of personal data about them for marketing purposes. In the study, a survey was conducted with the participation of 450 people by using the questionnaire technique, which is one of the quantitative research methods. Before the research was carried out, a pre-test was conducted with the participation of 30 people on 22-26 May 2021 and the questionnaire was revised and finalized according to the results of the pre-test. The questionnaire, which was transferred to the online environment between 26 May and 18 June 2021, was answered by 450 participants and all forms were analyzed since no technical problems were encountered. The data obtained from the research were analyzed and interpreted with the SPSS program. In line with the findings, it has been determined that the majority of the participants are not satisfied with the use of their personal data in marketing applications, and they have more positive views towards institutions that are sensitive about the security of their personal data. At the same time, according to the demographic characteristics of the participants, the use of personal data in marketing applications, the effect of these applications on the relationship with the institution, and whether the participant evaluations the policies regarding the acquisition, protection, processing, and confidentiality of personal data lead to a statistically significant difference. The findings obtained by applying the T test and Anova test were interpreted within the scope of the study.