Why do I get different offers from the same store depending on email address?
Asked by
Supacase (
14563
)
March 23rd, 2011
I have two accounts with Barnes & Noble, each one associated with a different email address. I have noticed that, while the exact same sale information is sent to both addresses, the discount offered through my yahoo address is consistently higher than the one offered through gmail. For example, I may get 30% off through gmail and 40% off through yahoo.
What’s the deal?
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5 Answers
It’s due to response profiling. For different ISPs, the historical data on offers redeemed is tracked, and the response rate for yahoo users seems to be tied to a higher discount offer. If the offer is stated in the subject line, then the rate is first an inducement to get you to open and read the e-mail. For 40% a yahoo user is more likely to redeem the coupon, or make an online purchase than at a lower rate.
profiling after data mining
Are either of these email addresses linked to a past or present street address (through usage of your credit card which would yield them you RL address) or any other RL info they might have on you ?
I know that this is quite a common practice for catalog mailings which evidently play around with prices linked to zip codes all the time to determine what the market will bear.
It’s much more common with catalogs than most of us realize since we typically receive the catalog at one address only.
@Buttonstc I’m sure my Yahoo has past address information – I have had it since 1999. Now that you mention it, the default ZIP when I look up movies on Yahoo is the one I had before where I live now and it is in a lower income part of the city.
That’s most likely it then. It’s amazing how much more of our RL info is aggregated and linked to our online presence than we think would be possible.
I hate all this data mining stuff.
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