• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 10, 2015

Brands say they know their customers, but results from a recent study suggest otherwise. Findings from a recent study estimate that 20% of U.S. and U.K. consumers say they receive between four and five irrelevant marketing messages per day, with 17% of U.S. and 14% of U.K. respondents receiving more than ten mis-targeted communications daily.

While consumers are more open to personalization, findings from Gigya's The 2015 State of Consumer Privacy & Personalization study suggest that some marketing messages have become offensive. About 25% of U.S. and 17% of U.K. consumers claim to have been made upset by an insensitive marketing message sent by a brand. Commissioned with OnePoll, the study tallies sentiment from 2,000 U.S. and 2,000 U.K. consumers ages 18 and older.

Amazon apparently provides the highest level of personalized messages. The findings reveal that more than half of U.S. consumers and 30% of U.K. consumers can think of a brand they feel sends them relevant information on a consistent basis.

Loyalty counts, but some 20% of U.K. and 27% of U.S. consumers said they have stopped visiting the company's Web site or mobile app that send irrelevant messages. What’s more, irrelevant communication has driven approximately 15% of both US and UK consumers to stop buying products from a company completely.

The trend toward personalization led Bing Ads to use more search and display behavior data to improve ad and gender ad targeting across its sites. The Microsoft advertising division this week said it would use the data worldwide to improve demographic ad targeting to serve "personalized, more relevant ads."

So what did consumers participating in Gigya's study do after receiving irrelevant information or product recommendations? In the U.S., 65% said they unsubscribed from the email list, 47% ignored future communications from the company, and 52% either marketed the message as spam or stopped visiting their Web site. Some 16% in the U.S. went so far as to stop buying the company's products, and 11% complained about the company to others in person or on social media.