Marketing surveys have got my number

Feeling a bit melancholy today, my good friends here in the Old Line State? Well, it’s not surprising, considering that Maryland ranks 24th on WalletHub’s 2015’s Most and Least Happy States in America. We fall right in middle, with Utah topping the list as the happiest state and neighbor West Virginia the unhappiest. And I thought it was just me.

Every week, I get a couple of these kinds of survey results in my email, often from WalletHub, a financial company that offers “the tools and information you need to make the best financial decisions and save money,” according to the company’s website. The messages are often buried in what I call the daily email dump I receive, which is on average about several hundred a day, everything from inner-office correspondence to notes from folks in the community to mostly what I would consider junk mail from marketing types whom I’ve never met. With this number of emails to read, no wonder they have me pegged as moody.

Marketing folks love to put us in categories. And we, as consumers, love to let them do it. Of the email surveys I receive, usually one or two a week comes from the good folks at WalletHub or some other survey-based group that wants to let me know of some obscure or even esoteric ranking of states or cities in this country.

WalletHub is usually the most consistent for this, at least in my email. In the last several weeks, I’ve found out that Maryland also ranks 18th on the list of the best state to have a baby and Baltimore ranks 76th on the list of recession recovered cities and 84th best city for pet lovers. All from a financial perspective and all measuring key metrics as they pertain to money. But they aren’t alone in letting us know where the region ranks.

Another group, Estately Blog, a house shopping website, dropped an email recently to point out that Maryland is the fifth friendliest state in the nation for redheads, a finding that understandably would make my ginger-haired daughter happy. The criteria here is based on the fewest number of sunny days for these fair-skinned folks, social media interest in redheads and the population’s preference in Gilligan’s Island’s Ginger over Mary Ann. Hard-hitting criteria obviously.

Facebook is big on this. If you’re on the social media site much at all, you’re asked to take part in surveys all the time.

Today, my page is asking me to weigh in on who won the Republican debate last week. For that, I’ll pass. Not because I don’t have an opinion but more because I don’t want that opinion used to help pigeon-hole me for some marketing or advertising campaign.

Truth of the matter is, you can’t help surrendering some details. Every time you go online now, the site tries to track you so that it can serve you up ads that are in step with your interests. But, as much as I hate to admit it, we are pretty easily stereotyped, at least in some broad sense. If there’s a sports-obsessed, classic-rock-loving, Chinese-food-eating, middle-aged-male category, some marketing type has got my number.

Honestly, though, I enjoy what the marketing world thinks of me. Quite often, it’s better than reality.

Paul Milton is the Times editor. Email him at pmilton@carrollcountytimes.com.

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Marketing surveys have got my number