In today’s marketing communications, all the stops have been pulled out. Marketers use word of mouth, social media, guerilla marketing, and many other methods to get attract business. I recently came across an article that explored yet another method –one of tracking consumers.
An article in the Wall Street Journal explores a tactic that Orbitz (a well-known travel booking website) has recently put into use. The website now tracks whether a user is searching from a Mac or PC computer and displays different options for each. The company believes that Mac users are willing to spend more for hotel stays than PC users, ending with search results that are a little more expensive if you are shopping on a Mac.
Orbitz Website
This is an interesting tracking system, but I question how likely it is to work. The few Mac users interviewed in this article stated that they did not mind this tracking as long as they were still given the option to search for hotels by price –meaning Mac users would never only be shown the more expensive options.
As a Mac user myself, I feel like this is an unfair tactic. Had I not stumbled across this article, I might have never known that Orbitz was automatically generating search results that are a bit more expensive. If users are unaware that they will need to change the settings of the search (to list hotels by price) and just assume that what is listed is what is available, Mac users might be unknowingly spending more because they are not presented with all of the options.
It is hard to see how much this could affect travel booking since this process of tracking what kind of computer a user is using is still in the beginning stages. Orbitz may also start tracking Mac preferences in flights and car rentals.
From Popular Mechanics
But I cannot help but wonder, does it really matter whether someone uses a Mac or a PC? People who use these sites are looking for a deal on travel. If a user is constantly steered toward more expensive hotels (or less expensive hotels that they are not satisfied with as a PC user) wouldn’t they get fed up with the site and try the competitors?
It will be interesting to see how this works out.
http://online.wsj.com/articl/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882.html