This Major Research Project (MRP) looks at the intersection of digital marketing and identities, amongst liminal persons and those who have multiple identities. In Les Rites de Passage, 1909, Arnold van Gennep introduced the concept of liminality as the transition between two social states, such as entering a new life stage. My research also builds upon Victor Turner’s concepts of liminality, identity transformation, and multiple personas. In digital worlds, liminality and identity play are common practices. As the internet faces further commercialization and transformation (e.g., regulation, data management, new social platforms), marketers need to better understand identity management.

Marketing and communications platforms shape identity and influence behaviour. Marketers track personas, which lay the basis of assumptions and decision-making. Digital marketing has transformed our ideas of self and individual representation, often serving corporate goals. Those who are marginalized are often over surveilled or completely unaccounted for, creating misrepresented customer profiles.

Research with marginalized individuals in Canada was conducted to understand their multiple identities, digital lives, and liminality. Interviews, digital diaries, and foresight scenarios illuminated influences on how digital identities are formed and managed. Marginalized groups are more vulnerable to the negative impacts of digital marketing, such as discrimination, highlighting pertinent ethical concerns and leverage points for improvement.

This MRP’s insights inform digital marketing and market segmentation to ensure ethical and human-centred practices that respect the individual. The recommendations address how digital marketing can adequately account for the plurality of individuals, and how people undergo constant identity change. The most desirable future of identities is one that is transformational, exhibiting sovereignty over one’s multiple identities. This includes three key themes — identity construction, social relationships, and financial and transactional implications — to reach a more equitable identity ecosystem.