You know Schrödinger’s cat? The famous physics thought experiment where a cat in a sealed box is both alive and dead until you open it?
That’s personalization in 2025. Your customers both want it and hate it, at the exact same time.
One second, they’re thinking, “Wow, they totally get me.”
But push it one step too far, they’re side‑eyeing you like, “Wait… how do you know that?”
The data plays out like a cosmic joke:
So basically: “Notice me… but don’t notice me too much.”
That’s the paradox.
The issue isn’t whether personalization works. Of course it does. The issue is how fast it can tip from “Oh, that’s helpful” to “Okay, that’s creepy, stop watching me.”
Too generic and you’re invisible. Too precise and you’ve triggered the “surveillance” reflex.
It’s a fine line… and most brands are tripping over it.
And now, with AI and hyper personalization going hand in hand and running a lot of these plays, the stakes are even higher. We’ve got both good and bad news.
The good news? AI can personalize at scale, spotting patterns, making suggestions, tailoring offers in real time… you name it.
The bad news? When it goes wrong, it doesn’t just mess up for one customer, it messes up for everyone.
Take the fast‑food drive‑thru experiment in recent times. A major fast-food chain rolled out AI order‑takers in hopes of speeding things up, upselling smarter, and making orders feel personal.
Instead, the system started adding random extras, like 200‑plus chicken nuggets or bacon bits sprinkled on ice‑cream cones.
People filmed it, posted it on TikTok, and within hours the trial became a joke.
And that’s the risk.
In this hyper connected age, personalization wins or fails at light speed.
So, how do you avoid it?
You dodge the traps, yes! those little mistakes that take you from “helpful” to “creepy” in a heartbeat.
Because, 69% of consumers say they appreciate personalization, so long as it’s based on data they’ve shared with a business directly.
Let’s start with:
Merchant thought: We’ve got their info, let’s use it.
Customer reaction: Cool, except that’s not me anymore.
People change faster than our CRM updates. Someone who bought running shoes last year might have just had knee surgery. Someone who binged baking videos in 2022 could now be living on high‑protein, low‑carb meals and hasn’t touched flour in months.
But if you’re still out here going, “Hey, since you loved sourdough starter kits in 2020…”
Ahhhhh… no.
What to avoid:
Why it backfires:
Instead of feeling “seen,” your customer feels like you’re stuck in the past, running off an outdated version of them.
Example: A big music‑streaming platform’s 2024 “year‑in‑review” drop was supposed to be a celebration of each listener’s unique taste. Instead, users complained their “Top 5 artists” included musicians they barely played and stats that felt recycled from the year before. Social media called it “lazy,” “copy‑pasted,” and “the weakest yet.”
How to fix it:
Merchant thought: Everyone in NYC wants bagels.
Customer reaction: Cool, I’m allergic to gluten
Segmentation isn’t guessing.
Just because someone lives in New York doesn’t mean they live on bagels. And just because they bought baby clothes once doesn’t mean they have a newborn right now.
If you’re taking one surface‑level data point and deciding, their entire personality, it backfires. And yeah… people notice.
What to avoid:
Why it backfires:
Because you’re making it obvious you don’t actually know them and you just added them into a generic bucket.
This won’t make your customer feel personal, it feels like a marketing horoscope: “Ah yes, you are a Sagittarius, so you must love oat milk.”
Example: A bank rolled out automated email campaigns for customer onboarding.
But they didn’t bother segmenting by account type, so premium clients got irrelevant starter‑account offers and yeah, it didn’t work out well for them.
How to fix it:
Merchant thought: The more specific, the better!
Customer reaction: Are they… watching me?
This is when you cross the invisible line between helpful and getting labeled as a stalker.
You know, 63% of Gen X and Baby Boomers say ads based on their browsing history feel invasive, higher than the 55% of younger consumers who feel the same.
What to avoid:
Why it backfires: It stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like surveillance. And once trust cracks, it’s hard to glue back together.
Example: A consulting firm ran a campaign with hyper‑targeted ads that called out specific things people had searched for internally. Their intention was to be more relevant, nothing wrong, but people freaked out. It felt way too precise, like the firm was peeking over their shoulder.
How to fix it:
Merchant thought: If it’s relevant, more is better.
Customer reaction: If I get one more email, I’m unsubscribing.
FYI: This isn’t the same as Creep‑factor personalization. That’s about what you’re saying being too personal.
This is about how often you’re saying it, and even good messages become noise when you won’t stop talking. To back it up, 26 % of people unsubscribe because they get too many emails, and 21 % because the emails aren’t relevant.
What to avoid:
Why it backfires:
Relevance doesn’t matter if the timing is relentless. Instead of building anticipation, you’re training them to scroll past you.
Example:
A major home-goods retailer decided more promos meant more sales… so they kept texting even after people replied “STOP.” At first, it was just annoying. Then it crossed into full-blown backlash and customers complained publicly, screenshots hit social, and legal trouble followed.
How to fix it:
Merchant thought: Let’s hit send to everyone at 9 AM.
Customer reaction: Why am I getting a dinner promo while I’m halfway through my morning coffee?
Timing isn’t one‑size‑fits‑all.
Your 9 AM might be someone else’s 2 AM.
Your “perfect” mid‑week sale drop might land right when your audience is offline or busy.
What to avoid:
Why it backfires:
Because timing shapes attention. Hit them at the wrong moment and your message is invisible or worse, annoying.
Example: A popular coffee chain once sent a “3 p.m. Happy Hour” app notification… at midnight. To customers, it felt like a random late‑night ping and completely out of place and way past bedtime. With customers joking that it was like the brand was “drunk‑texting” them in the middle of the night.
How to fix it:
To help you understand better, here’s your quick cheat‑sheet to keep personalization on the nice side.
To wrap up,
Personalization in 2025 lives in a paradox.
People want it, they expect you to know their tastes, remember their preferences, and make things easier for them.
But they also hate it, the moment it feels too close, too constant, or too presumptive.
That’s why balance matters.
Personalize content that feels like it’s there to help, not to push.
Get that balance right, and you’re not just avoiding cringe‑worthy marketing moments, you’re building the kind of trust and loyalty that keeps people opening, clicking, and coming back.
And at SureBright: The extended warranty and product protection, that’s exactly what we help merchants do: create trust‑driven experiences that keep customers coming back, long after the first click.
Want to see how that looks for your brand? Let’s Talk.
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