You Know My Name. Do You Know Me?

Did you know that getting HIGH can make you feel deeply understood by someone who knows absolutely nothing about you?

A shopping app wished me a happy birthday. It used my name, added confetti, and offered a special deal on a pressure cooker.

I had bought a pressure cooker from it three days earlier.

MeM.R.K, this brand remembers my birthday.

M.R.KThoughtful.

MeIt does not remember the cooker.

M.R.KPerhaps it expects a very large party.

MeIs this personalisation?

M.R.KIt is personalised text. Whether it is a personalised experience is the interesting part.

MeBut the name, the date and the offer were all there.

M.R.KIf I greet you by name and serve you the meal you told me you cannot eat, have I understood you?

I put the phone aside. It continued to insist that my second cooker was urgently required.

MeWhat should they have done instead?

M.R.KMaybe nothing. Maybe ask whether the delivery went well. Maybe explain a useful feature of the item you bought. You cannot assume every interaction needs to end in another purchase.

MeSo more customer data would fix this?

M.R.KUseful, accurate data might help. Collecting everything just because you can creates a different problem. What does the customer expect you to remember? Have they agreed to that use? Can they correct it or turn it off?

MeCustomers want brands to know them, though.

M.R.KSometimes they want you to remember their shoe size. That does not mean they want you to announce that you noticed their midnight browsing habits.

MeHelpful versus creepy.

M.R.KAnd remember: relevance depends on context. You searched for a birthday gift for your niece. The app concluded that you had become a ten-year-old dinosaur enthusiast. One action is not your whole identity.

Adobe’s 2026 consumer research describes both appreciation for AI-enabled convenience and caution about sensitive information and important decisions. A customer can welcome help while still wanting control over the relationship.

MeWhere should a marketer start?

M.R.KWith one useful moment. Stop suggesting something already bought when a repeat purchase makes no sense. Keep contact preferences easy to change. Explain why a recommendation appears. Make it possible to speak to a person when the system gets it wrong.

MeThat sounds less exciting than “hyper-personalised engagement.”

M.R.KTo the presentation, perhaps. To someone receiving their ninth irrelevant message, it sounds wonderful.

My phone buzzed again. “We have picked this just for you.”

MeAnother cooker.

M.R.KThe brand knows your name. It is still getting acquainted with the rest of you.

I turned off promotional messages and opened the cooking instructions for the one I owned.

For the first time that morning, the information was relevant.