Research Proposal: Privacy Protection in Digital Marketing (Adidas)

This research proposal investigates the critical issue of privacy protection within the dynamic landscape of digital marketing, with a specific focus on the case of Adidas. The study commences with a comprehensive introduction, laying the groundwork by exploring the background of the study, the statement of the problem, and the rationale behind the research. The research aims to understand the importance of privacy protection in digital marketing and its implications for companies like Adidas. The objectives include understanding the concept of protective databases, critically analyzing the importance of such databases within Adidas's digital marketing department, identifying gaps and loopholes associated with privacy breaches, and recommending strategies to mitigate these challenges. The research employs a detailed methodology, including research philosophy, design, data collection methods, sampling techniques, and data analysis. The literature review covers key concepts such as digital marketing and privacy protection, and a critical analysis of privacy protection and its importance in the digital age. The proposal also includes research questions and hypotheses to guide the investigation. The expected outcome is a comprehensive analysis of privacy threats, their impact, and potential solutions for enhancing customer data protection in digital marketing, with specific recommendations for Adidas. The research is expected to be completed within a span of 24 weeks.

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

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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.

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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

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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.