There’s an interesting consensus as society settles into

understanding what a personalized experience means.  It means we’re creating a “world” (i.e. consumer experience) that’s tailored to you.

In the online ad space, one marketing agency, Q Interactive , conducted a study regarding online ads that were served up based on behavioral data:

Women’s Channel, an agency that researches online trends among females, reported that 65 percent of its participants were intrigued by the system of behavioral marketing. They were especially interested in how the ads seemed to “know” what they wanted. A sizeable number of them — 88 percent — said that they wanted more tailored ads served online.  (imediaconnection.com)

This study is relevant to offline marketing in that it focuses on the question of “how did you like the experience” – when it comes to personalizing an experience for a recipient / web user.  The women who were part of this survey found, on the whole, that advertising that is tailored to them as an individual, creates a better experience.  It implies that the marketer has done the legwork necessary to intelligently recommend a product, instead of past approaches of simply yelling out a feature or benefit to anyone within earshot (or on a mailing list… or on a webpage…).

To some extent the personalization and relevance that some websites have (think facebook’s recommendations or personalized homepages like alltop) have shown us how useful this technology can be – and now offline technology like PURLs and demographic selects will translate a similar experience through the mail.   True this is but one study, but I think if you focus on the ad experience, we’ll find it to be a better world when even your dinner menu arrives personalized.