The notion of addressable minds produces a different type of database about a person. Rather than
knowing who a person is, knowing what the person does, addressable minds work in the so-called ‘here and
now’, at the micro-level. Today’s advertising is often one-way, even though the trend is to go from mass
advertising on television and radio to more micro-targeted advertising on the Internet. Search-based advertising is
growing rapidly. When a person searches for something, it’s likely that he is interested in that product, and may
even be in a buying mode. What about knowing the person’s membership in a mind-set segment for the particular
product being searched? Such information, gathered either early on in the creation of these large databases, or
even obtained at the time of search, allows the marketer to better understand the needs of the prospective
customer, and provide a targeted offer.
