Friday 3 October 2014

Shopper-engagement at the checkout?


According to Reuters, the Venezuelan government has started to fingerprint shoppers at some state-run supermarkets, in a plan to combat food scarcity by weeding out smugglers and hoarders. Around 785,000 people have been registered in six state-run food store chains across the country, allowing them access to price-fixed products on the shelves.

So, adding fingerprints to name, address, occupation, age, sex, family structure, income-level, state-of-health, recreations and travel, dietary habits, insurance, debt-profile and bank-balance, completes the retailer’s knowledge of the consumer…

In other words, if ‘ownership’ of a consumer is defined by extent of knowledge, then retailers combining loyalty card and scanning data to produce a 100% shopper-profile have to have a greater claim to ownership of the consumer than a marketer knowing that the consumer is probably grey-haired and living alone in the country, two children having left home…

However, a NAM working in collaboration with a major customer represents potential access to that retailer insight....

So perhaps taking a fingerprint is merely an inevitable move towards ultimate consumer satisfaction, all under the watchful eye of our benevolent big sister….?

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