| This master's thesis examines the perceptions of undergraduate college students with regards to their awareness of marketing technologies and practices. Young adults raised in the digital age have a fundamental relationship with the Internet, social media and digitally based advertising. To gain insight into the perceptions these young students, 112 questionnaires, each containing 26 questions, were completed, coded, compiled and analyzed. The first step was to differentiate between the technologically fluent and influent. Once the students were split into two groups, a comparison was made of the their perceptions of marketing. The students demonstrated a remarkable degree of awareness of digital technologies being utilized and invasive marketing being practiced. The two groups showed relatively similar scores although percentages did vary at times. The opinion section showed an acceptance of data mining, consumer profiling and social media tracking. The disagreement was mostly evident in advertisements being sent to mobile devices, social media pages and email accounts. Purchasing recommendations were acceptable at websites they visited for the purpose of buying merchandise. It appears that is acceptable since the practice aids the shopper in locating desired products and services. However, unsolicited advertisements were deemed unwelcome. |
