NZ Post launches Lifestyle Survey

New Zealand’s most comprehensive survey asking Kiwis their preferences on everything from takeaways to travel destinations begins landing in 800,000 letterboxes and 125,000 email inboxes from next week. The second New Zealand Post Lifestyle Survey poses 56 questions to householders on a wide variety of preferences including what sport they play, what kind of car they drive and their favourite fast foods.

Data from the voluntary survey is used by New Zealand Post for its own marketing databases and for providing commercial clients with the richest source of consumer information in New Zealand. This ultimately produces more tailored direct marketing to the consumer, the operator said.

New Zealand Post general manager integrated communications, Dr Sohail Choudhry said data gathering of people’s personal preferences is a vital component of modern marketing, but it is crucial the public are aware that their information is being used for marketing purposes.

“Because of New Zealand Post’s trusted position in the community, we need to be an industry leader in being up-front and clear about why we’re asking for this information and what it is used for,” said Dr. Choudhry.

New Zealand Post ensures the information gathered is kept secure and used in accordance with strict terms and conditions – either for its own marketing or with trusted, contracted commercial partners such as utility, telecommunication and print media companies.

Dr. Choudhry said ‘data mining’ was becoming more sophisticated and less apparent to the public, particularly on social media platforms and with competitions.

“People may not realise they are surrendering personal information when they utilise various apps, play online games or enter competitions. That detail is often buried or not readily apparent.

“There are tremendous benefits for the consumer for companies and organisations having a clearer picture of people’s likes and dislikes, but that shouldn’t be at the cost of privacy,” he said.

Dr. Choudhry said New Zealand Post ensures people maintain ultimate control of their volunteered information, giving them the option to withdraw their data at any time in the future.

New Zealand Post has also learned lessons from the first Lifestyle Survey in 2009 which some people thought was compulsory and others mistook for the census.

“We repeatedly state – eleven times in the survey form in fact – that the Lifestyle Survey is completely voluntary. The survey doesn’t coincide with the census year this time so there won’t be any mix-ups on that score either,” he said.