Privacy Protection in the Age of Digital Marketing: A Case Study of Adidas

This research proposal focuses on the issue of privacy protection in the age of digital marketing with special reference to the case study of Adidas. It aims to understand the importance of protecting the privacy of customers using the online platform as part of digital marketing. The proposal includes a literature review on digital marketing and privacy protection, research aims and objectives, research questions, and methodology.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Topic
PRIVACY PROTECTION IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL MARKETING WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO THE CASE STUDY OF ADIDAS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background of the study:.............................................................................................................4
Statement of the problem:............................................................................................................4
The rationale of the research:......................................................................................................5
Research aims and objectives:.....................................................................................................5
Research questions:.....................................................................................................................6
Research hypothesis:...................................................................................................................6
Literature review:.............................................................................................................................7
The concept of digital marketing.................................................................................................7
The concept of privacy protection...............................................................................................8
Critical analysis of privacy protection and its importance in the age of digital marketing.......11
Research questions:.......................................................................................................................12
Methodology..................................................................................................................................12
Research philosophy..................................................................................................................12
Research Design:.......................................................................................................................13
Data collection method:.............................................................................................................13
Sampling method and sampling size:........................................................................................14
Data analysis technique:............................................................................................................14
Research ethical consideration:.................................................................................................14

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Limitation of the study:.............................................................................................................15
Expected outcome:.....................................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Background of the study:
There have been researches done in recent years about the issue of digital marketing and
there possible impact on the customers. According to the author digital marketing and customer,
the relation has a direct connection (Crittenden et al. 2015). According to the theoretical and
empirical findings, it is argued that digital marketing which encompasses all the channels of
online platform starting from the search engines, social media, websites are susceptible to
privacy threat (Crittenden et al. 2015). Customers are vulnerable and become targets of this
privacy breach. According to another study, digital marketing has a significant impact on the
consumer behaviour, and there are possible repercussions of the growing concerns of the privacy
threat on the part of ht users of the digital platforms (Selwyn 2015). The changing nature of the
digital media including the fast-changing technologies and the way consumers a user of the
digital user communicate is not more about simple transactions instead it is a more complicated
situation of how this information is protected and promoted which pushes them towards future
threats(Ryan 2016).
The importance of conducting this research is that privacy of the customers is a threat in
the age of growing digital influence and there are maximum numbers of cases of privacy threat
in this century than ever. This is because data are not being tested and protected against a
stringent law and mechanism and this is leading the customer's risk in terms of theft or fraud of
the highly sensitive information. This is also because the digital marketing platforms lack the
required infrastructure to protect the data theft. A detailed research methodology has been stated

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in the body of the research, and the research is expected to be completed within a span of 24
weeks.
Statement of the problem:
The issue of digital marketing and protection of the customer’s information has become
crucial in recent years. The situation has changed from simple junk emails or website cookies to
misusing the highly sensitive data for direct marketing purposes. This has an adverse impact on
the private database of the customers. What is more dangerous is the issue of the growing
number of such cases in recent years.
Moreover, this is an infringement of the individual right of the customers who are being
threatened with their information breach without their knowledge. This requires utmost attention
of the government for developing technical and structural support in order to protect the privacy
of the individual information in the age of digital marketing. Customers and users become the
victims of the situation and fall into compromising position without their knowledge in the
majority of the situations. Hence it is essential to understand when the digital world is running on
the fuel of personal data of the customers, why is it not able to protect the data and ensure the
customer's trust.
The rationale of the research:
The issue is that consumers are facing in threat arising from the breach of their private
data in recent years as a part of the digital marketing (Selwyn 2015). This is an essential issue
because unauthorised sources use their data for illegal purposes without the knowledge of the
customer (Kannan 2017). This issue is primarily crucial because the number of customers using
online platforms to sell and purchase has increased manifold in recent years. This is also

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important in the recent context because marketing through the online platform has been the key
aspect of the day to day life if the individual (Selwyn 2015). This research will conduct an
analysis of the issue of privacy breach of the customers and their impact on digital marketing.
The aim of the study is to find out the possible ways the privacy protection of the individual
consumers are threatened and their possible outcome in the age of digital marketing.
Research aims and objectives:
The aim of the study is to understand the importance of protection of privacy of the
customers using the online platform as part of the digital marketing focusing on the case of the
Adidas.
The research objectives are:
1. To understand the concept of the protective database in digital marketing
2. To critically analyse the importance of protective database in Adidas digital marketing
department
3. To identify the gaps and loopholes associated with the privacy breach in Adidas
4. To recommend preferable strategies to overcome these challenges in future
Research questions:
RQ1. What is the importance of protective database in ensuring the sanctity of the
individual's data?
RQ2. What are the means of the privacy breach in Adidas and how do they impact the future
of Adidas?

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RQ3. What are the means by which privacy breach could be reduced and how will
contribute in digital marketing with particular reference to Adidas?
Research hypothesis:
H1. Privacy protection of the individual customers does not have any probable repercussions
on the digital marketing.
H2. Privacy breach of individual customers does have a negative impact on the future of
digital marketing.
Literature review:
The concept of digital marketing
Digital marketing is the marketing of the various products and services through the use of
the digital technologies, and there are over ten different types of digital marketing strategies like
the social media marketing, email marketing, content marketing, radio marketing,pay-per-click
marketing, search engine optimisation to name a few (Kannan 2017). The matter of the fact is
that this century has seen the maximum growth of the digital platforms. This is the new digital
era that has a wide implication in our lives. This has a direct correlation with the ways people
behave and they are being shaped in one or the other way by this digitisation (Crittenden et al.
2015). According to the author, this digital interlocking of the individual life is unavoidable
(Kannan 2017). This is also argued that reaching the target audience is more comfortable through
the online platform as this is more target oriented in nature than the traditional modes of
marketing (Ferrell 2017). Digital and social media has changed the way people interact and
engage with technology on an everyday basis. There has been the growth of multiple avenues by

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which industries are developing various ways of promoting digital marketing by analysing
customer behaviour (Todor 2016).
Moreover digital marketing has the benefit of generating better revenues and earn people's
trust (Ryan 2016). It helps to leverage the customer's satisfaction by portraying their previous
customers purchases, products marketed by them. Hence, digital marketing works as a medium
for reaching the people at a faster pace and lower cost. Moreover, it provides people with
flexibility in taking favourable actions related to products or any other issues. What makes
digital marketing unavoidable is their unique features which traditional marketing lacks, These
are artificial intelligence, programmed chatbots, programmatic advertisements and most
importantly personalisation (Kerber 2016). This helps to create a space for the individual choice
and make the customer feel more attracted. From the customer’s perspective, digital marketing
provides fair opportunities to all kinds of business, small or large. This provides an overall
growth opportunity for the companies to showcase their talent and reach to the target audience
through the online platforms (Selwyn 2015). Digital marketing is less expensive and more
competitive in nature. It provides an extensive opportunity to compete and improve their brand
equity on the global platform. However, it is argued that digital marketing and traditional
marketing is ultimately depended upon the core value of “marketing”. It should be protective
about the sensitive data that they have access to and it should focus primarily on protecting this
sensitive data to avoid losing customer's trust in the brand.
The concept of privacy protection
Privacy protection is the process of protecting and storing of information and data of the
customers (Bettini et al. 2015). These sensitive sources of the information are shared by
individuals while accessing multiple sources online. According to the author, there are multiple

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avenues to protect this highly sensitive individual information through different hardware and
software (Bettini et al. 2015). However, what makes it vulnerable is that this vast amount of data
are shared and transferred at a constant basis around the globe and this is what it is making more
difficult to maintain and protect such data. This is the matter of concern that in the age of digital
marketing, the percentage has gone up. The multiple avenues of protecting the data ensure that
these data are kept in control. However, this situation has changed over time and there is
heightened interest in protecting these data for the coming times. There is a direct correlation
between privacy protection, digital marketing and data breach (Zhang 2018).
According to the author, privacy theft is a common issue in the digital sphere. There are a
growing number of cases where the data and personal information provided by the users and
customers are not protected by any system (Presthus et al. 2018). He also argues, even when
there are multiple systems of ensuring data of the customers or at least it is promised so, there are
cases of complete domain hijacking (Presthus et al. 2018). These data are misused in many
different ways. These data are vulnerable to the attack of the scammers, hackers, telemarketers
and sale person. Even personal data like contact number is being used and reregistered in others
name so as to misuse the platform for gaining personal profits.
According to (Bettini et al.2015), privacy breach is also a breach of the individual rights
of the citizens. Countries with stringent laws for the data protection fails to find out the gaps in
the system and the reason behind the company's failing standard to protect the data. It deals with
the nuances of data breach and their possible repercussions (Bettini et al.2015 ). It also argued
that data is the new “luxury good” that requires utmost attention (Benz et al. 2017). There are
ample researches done on this field regarding the data breach of big companies and their impact

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on the brand image. However, the possible nuances of privacy protection have remained a grey
area for long due to the lack of research in this sphere.
According to (Acquisti et al. 2015), the privacy of the individuals is exposed to the world
through multiple avenues. However, it is essential to understand the link between privacy breach
and digital marketing. According to the author, traditional market strategist have tried long for
analysing the chararestistics of the target customer, while digital marketing is the easy method on
uncovering the possibilities through analysing the “personal information” of the customers(Benz
et al. 2017). This shared information is readily available to the digital marketing segments to
understand and analyse their customers demand and invest their energy in the right manner in the
right way. This heightened concern for the protection of the personal data is the result of the
recent privacy breach of one of the social media giant, Facebook (Joly et al. 2016). Privacy
protection is the crucial part of protecting the consumers' trust. There are companies which have
gone beyond the protection of data and filed to protect them from external threat. This has
directly impacted the customers by pushing them into compromising position (Morey et al.
2015). Hence, privacy protection remains to be the most crucial aspects of the digital marketing
debate till today because of a growing number of such cases in this field.

10RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Fig: Data privacy and threat perception among the consumers
Source: (Business to Community, 2019)
Critical analysis of privacy protection and its importance in the age of digital
marketing
Even though researches have been done in this field of privacy breach in social media or
other digital marketing sites, there are hardly any research conducted on the field of privacy
protection of the customers and the users when their sensitive pieces of information is shared
without the knowledge of the user himself (Hille et al. 2015). There is not much literature
available to understand the different nuances of privacy protection of these companies like
Adidas. What are the steps taken by these companies where privacy breach of the customers
happen is still the grey area (Martin et al. 2017). There are reliable data to understand and
analyse the different aspect of the privacy threat to the personal information of the users,
however it lacks to provide any reliable data to the possible outcome of the privacy breach.
Moreover, it is important to understand that privacy protection is the key to any
successful business. Unless the customers enjoy a level of trust for the company, it is likely to
affect the brand image (Pappas 2016). The problem lies in finding the issues of privacy
protection of the companies and why is it causing a hindrance to these companies develop a
strong data protection regulatory mechanism. This is not just protecting the sensitive data of the
customers, it is about protecting the trust of the customers. According to the data, there have
been strong regulatory methods for restricting this data breach and putting the customers into
customers position (Pappas 2016). However, research says there is a lack in the implementation
in such mechanism that fails these companies to protect the privacy of the customers. However it

11RESEARCH PROPOSAL
has remained grey area for long. Moreover, the magnitude of the problem is beyond the thinking
capacity of the individual being. According to estimation, during the data breach of the Arkansas
university, over 50,000 people were affected in the process (Pappas 2016). Hence, it is not a
problem at a minute level rather the number of such incidents is higher than ever. Hence, it is not
to ignore that in the age of digital marketing, a number of privacy breach of people has manifold
and it even expected to increase in future. There is the direct correlation that has affected the
lives of the people whose data and their identity is at stake. According to Simpson(2016), recent
years have seen the maximum number of privacy threats and there have been much writing in the
academic field about the issue. However this does not restrict to writing about the issue and a
significant coverage would not mean it is mainstream rather there has to be scope and chance to
do further research in this field to understand the issue with greater detail. It is not the short-term
solution that is to be realised rather it is the long-term vision of the issue that draws towards
further research. Hence this issue will be discussed and analysed in detail to understand the issue
and various nuances of data protection, data breach the threat perception of the individual in the
age of maximum digital interactions.
Research questions:
The research will be focused on the understand of importance of protective database, data theft
and breach in the case study of Adidas and the privacy protection in the age of digital marketing.

12RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Methodology
Research philosophy
Research philosophy is the set of ideas of belief about the ways informations are
collected for conducting research. This includes the process by which this gathered data is
collected, analysed and used in the body of the research. There are predominantly three types of
research philosophies, namely, positivism, interpretivism, realism (Lewis 2015). According to
the author, research based on positivism philosophy will be based upon collecting data and facts
and it is based on sensory experience (Lewis 2015). This eliminates the possibility of
individualistic judgement and this also provides an in-depth analysis of the topic. Hence this
philosophy will be adopted for conducting the following research. The other two philosophies
have been eliminated because it depends on the individual perception which might differ people
to people (Simonsohn et al. 2017).
Research Design:
The research design is the way the research is structured and there are three types of
research designs. They are descriptive or analytical or descriptive, explanatory and exploratory
(Merriam et al. 2017). It’s the set method and procedures for analysing the different variable and
determines the way the research would be designed. In many cases, even the case study based
approach is adopted as the research design (Merriam et al. 2017). This research will focus on the
case study of Adidas, however this will constitute a minor part of the research and it will be used
to substantiate the issue of privacy protection in the digital marketing arena. Among these three
types, the logical design would be adopted here as this provides scope for conducting the
research in a systematic way. This leaves the scope of understanding the concept at the initial

13RESEARCH PROPOSAL
research and develop the relationship between the independent and the dependent variable of the
research. Hence this will be adopted as the research design while the other two will be rejected.
Data collection method:
Data are the foundation on the basis of which any conclusions are drawn. Hence the
collection of data is the most crucial part of the research (Merriam et al. 2017). For conducting
this particular research, both primary and secondary data will be used. Primary data will be
collected by conducting individual and group interviews and secondary data will be sourced
from the online and printed version of the available documents. Both primary and secondary data
is important for conducting the research because it will provide a comprehensive analysis of the
practical scenario of the privacy breach and privacy protection with the theoretical part derived
from the secondary research.
Sampling method and sampling size:
The sampling technique that would be used by for this research is probability and non-
probability sampling techniques (Smith 2015). Moreover, some random sampling would also be
collected and used to gain better insight into the issue. For collecting the primary data, an
interview of the managers of the company will be taking and for the assessment based on a
survey, least a minimum of 50 people will be conducted to understand the issue of a privacy data
breach.
Data analysis technique:
The data analysis technique will include both the quantitative and qualitative data
(Walliman 2017). For the quantitative data, it will be transformed into numeric and percentages
which in turn will provide a comprehensive comparison of all the collected data (Walliman

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2017). This will be helpful in converting the data into a graphical representation for the purpose
of the research. On the qualitative part, the thematic approach will be adopted for the purpose of
the research (Vaioleti 2016). The interviews, both individual and groups will be considered
considering the issues related to the topic.
Research ethical consideration:
Considering the ethical issues are important while conducting research (Vaioleti 2016). It
will be ensured that all ethical standards are maintained while; collecting the primary data from
the individuals and groups. This will not include any force or use of unethical means for
collecting the data. No symbol or logo of any company would be used while conducting the
research that might breach the purpose of the research. In case of any permission required from
any authority, it will be taken prior to the start of the research. It would be taken care that no
unethical practices are adopted while conducting the research. Moreover, while using the
secondary data, all the references would be used to avoid any plagiarism of ideas.
Limitation of the study:
There is a certain limitation of the study, firstly, there can be the problem of collecting
data within the given period. Time constraints can become an issue while gathering information.
It might limit the sources of information required to conduct the research. Secondly, the
resources may not be available for all the data. It might be inaccessible or unavailable. In the
case of conducting interviews, there might be a restriction of gaining permission. Moreover, the
information gathered from the interviewees may not be enough for conducting the research.
There may be a requirement for further research on the issue which requires further time and
number of interviewees.

15RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Expected outcome:
The research is expected to provide the following outcomes,
1. It will dwell into the issue of privacy protection in the age of growing digital use
2. It is expected to understand and analyse the privacy breach of companies like Adidas to
describe what are the factors that lead to the privacy breach.
3. It is also expected to provide a detailed analysis of the nuances of privacy protection ss
4. It is expected to provide an understanding of the vulnerability of the individual information
in the highly sensitive digital platform.

16RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Activities 1st to
3rd
Week
4th to
10th
week
11th to
13th
Week
14th to
17th
Week
18th to
21st
Week
22nd to
23rd
Week
24th
Week
Topic selection 
Collection of data both
primary and secondary
 
Layout formation 
Literature review   
Analysis and
interpretation of collected
data
  
Findings  
Concluding remarks 
Final draft  
Submission 
Fig: Gantt chart
Source: As created by the author

17RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Conclusion
The aim of the paper is to dwell into the issue of digital marketing and the data privacy of
the consumers in the age of digital marketing. There have been previous researches done on the
issue of digital marketing and privacy protection, however there are very less researches
conducted on the issue of heightened threat of data theft in the age of digital marketing The
research philosophy adopted for this is positivism and the research will be conducted based on
the primary and secondary data. The source of the primary data will be derived from the
interviews and the secondary data will be used drawing from literary academic article. However
there are certain limitations associated with this research too, however it will be dealt in with the
course of the research preparation. Nonetheless, the research is expected to provide insight on the
nuances of privacy protection and it will focus on the case study of data theft in Adidas. It will
also expect to provide insight on the security and vulnerability of the personal information of the
consumers in the future of the digital marketing.

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