But I own stock in these companies, so it does benefit me.
Bzzzt! Wrong! We’ve already established that is does benefit me. I’m asking why it harms me, a very different question that no one wants to answer.
I wonder why that is?
Sure Justin, seems innocuous.
How about the fact that you prefer “brighter teeth” to “fresh breath.” You’re starting to color your hair. You’re buying orthopedic insoles. And a twelve-pack of Trojans every week, but at a chain store that’s NOT your regular pharmacy. They’re “Ribbed for Her Pleasure.” Lube. Mmm Hmm. You stopped using twin-blade razors, then moved up to triple blade, now you’re regularly buying the ones with five blades. Ban roll-on deodorant. Really? Wow. LOT’S of Ban roll-on. . . And Scope. So you do want fresh breath, but from a mouthwash, not a toothpaste. Hold on, is that a Streisand CD. Bette Midler. Barry Manilow. Maybe we need to rethink the condoms and lube thing. . .
And? First of all, this kind of individual targeting does not happen. And if it does, it’s less than useless. My Amazon profile includes all sorts of things that I’ve bought for myself and bought for others. There’s no way to put it all together into a cohesive “story” like you do.
You are obviously not obligated to buy what they suggest, but people are suggestible, and probably even more so with food. I try to eat healthy food, including a lot of fruits and vegetables. But there are certain times when I’m craving junk food more than usual. If I’m able to get in and out of the grocery store quickly like usual, I’ll be more likely to stay strong and not buy any ice cream or candy. But the grocery store and the marketers want to figure out all the ways to slow me down or distract me, so that I will give in to suggestion and buy some candy.
So, for your recent purchase, the store could see your items and send coupons to you based on it. Let’s assume you bought the basic store brand peanut butter. The coupon that the store sends you could be for a jar of fancier peanut butter, that’s more expensive if there aren’t coupons but does taste better. Maybe you will just buy the one jar of premium peanut butter with the coupon, then switch back to the cheaper brand once you are finished with the premium jar. But the marketers are hoping that you will like the premium peanut butter enough that you will keep buying it instead. And maybe you will. Or at least you’ll buy the premium jar sometimes and the cheap jar sometimes.
I don’t know if you would count that as a “negative” effect, since you do (in this example) enjoy the premium peanut butter, and it’s worth it for you now to spend a little extra money to buy it, even if you never would have tried it without the coupon encouraging you to do so. But all the little things that the marketers encourage you to buy do add up.
Also, just seeing what you bought on one trip is somewhat useful, but much more useful for the store and marketers is to see your buying trends along with everyone else. They can see what products people often buy with peanut butter, or when people are more likely to buy it. For example, I’m guessing they can see that people buy one type of peanut butter to use in cookies in December, and a different type in January that has less fat and calories. Based on this information, the marketers can send out coupons to people, or move the foods around in the store. Lots of people do New Year’s Resolutions and try to eat healthier in January and February, so maybe there can be an endcap of the low-fat peanut butter over near the fruits and vegetables. People might not ordinarily think of peanut butter as being healthy, but with a display and being near healthy food, people might put that certain peanut butter in their cart without thinking about it too much, when they wouldn’t have if it had been among the regular peanut butter.
This is so very true. The marketers aren’t trying to change everything about your shopping habits, and they aren’t trying to get you to spend twice as much money as the previous trip, because they know it wouldn’t be successful. But they are trying to get everyone to spend a little bit more than they would have otherwise. If everyone spends just a little more, then that adds up. And the marketers can do that by knowing what people buy, and what they can be encouraged to buy more of.
I know that you say this jokingly…but even our water and produce HAVE been changed. We still put a lot of chemicals in the water, some in order to benefit ourselves (chlorine and fluoride) and some as waste. Apparently there’s a big problem with people flushing their antibiotics into the wastewater. And there was such a big stink about TSP that now we can’t get dishwasher detergent that works as well. As for produce, we have new pesticides and other stuff that gets sprayed on just about everything. And what’s the definition of “organic” now? I’m also finding more varieties of produce available, as well as more varieties of meat.
But the news article about a store marketing pregnancy-related goods based on women’s purchases shows that in some cases the advertising IS tailored to specific individuals. A woman bought certain things that tripped the “pregnant” flag and they started to target her. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?_r=0
They do HAVE THE ABILITY to profile you. They might not be doing it. But they can. And if they are, you might not realize it.
Pardon me a moment while I play devil’s advocate. 
The loyalty cards tracking purchases long term actually can save money for the store, allowing to keep prices somewhat more competative.
In terms of good inventory management, especially when dealing with dated products, the closer you can match the quantities ordered (purchased) with the quantities sold on a very short term basis, the less inventory on hand to have to mark down or dispose of (which costs more than just the value of the merchandise being disposed) and the more room on the shelves, in the coolers and freezers for other profitable items.
Knowing that you will likely sell 14 .5 gallon (or whatever size replaced that) of rocky road ice cream with six of those being paired with Brand X chocolate syrup, two with Brand Y whipped topping, three with a bunch of 4.5 bananas and one with a jar of Brand Z marashiano cherries during the period of June 13-16 based upon card tracking means that that is what you will be ordering. From this info, you will have to dispose or mark down few or no overripe bananas, there won’t be any whipped topping overordered and a bunch of the jarred cherries won’t be collecting dust.
It can also mean that instead of Brands X, Y and Z, they run specials on the store brand versions of these products, which, generally speaking, have a higher profit margin for the chains. Win / win.
Again, playing devil’s advocate. (Now where is the smiley with the horns?)
A good thought, but probably not true. Possibly some time in the past stores used it to anticpate purchases, but in current usages, the stores themselves (at least as individual units) don’t use the information at all.
It really is about tracking purchases by individuals over time, for the benefit of the manufacturer/wholesaler level first, the marketing aggregators second and a large enough store chain third. The individual consumer doesn’t even figure on the “benefit” list there.
Such tracking may have been rare and selective even five years ago, but it has exploded in both coverage and depth; you can be assured that every purchase you make above the level of a local independent seller of some kind is indeed tracked, one way or the other.
It is neither a benign nor a good thing, as I am pleased that some of you can see.
A Walmart cashier asked for my phone number and address when I used a debit card.
Not bloody likely.
Well, it did net you those free monthly subscriptions to Nailbomb Conoisseur and Wildeyed: The Magazine of Style for the Gentleman Manifestoed Drifter.
And you have yet to explain why.
Because apparently they can’t budget and if they let stores use tracking programs, before they know it, they’ll be spending 800 dollars a month on fancy peanut butter and 3 ply TP.
I dunno.
edit: Or slightly more insidiously, the store raises the prices on their fancy peanut butter to just below the top price the average consumer will pay. Oh woe is us, if only there were some way to check peanut butter prices from different merchants against each other and buy the least expensive one!
Alternatively, buy stock in your favorite stores and reap the benefits of tracking programs.
Yes, I have, more than once. It’s an invasion of individual privacy, an invasion of mass privacy, and a tool of mass control that benefits only the manufacturers and sellers. It results in manipulation of your shopping environment and reduction of your buying options, not just at that store, but overall. It’s economic oppression for the benefit of those who can’t stand letting you get away with an unspent dollar in your wallet, and it affects you no matter how smart, clever and non-directed you think you are.
If you think having every detail of your shopping tracked, recorded and used to benefit manufacturing and marketing efforts, based on such invasion of privacy, is ignorable, I don’t have anything further to add. Happy shopping. Your papers, please.
Life must be very distressing for you.
Look at all the big words I’m using! Clearly, that shows just how oppressive BIG GROCERY is! People are asking for specifics and you’re slipping into some tinfoil hat lecture… again. Tell us, in English, how these programs are bad for us.
How does this result in “manipulation of the shopping environment”?
How does this reduce “buying options”?
How is “economic oppression” if everyone gets the same price?
And how is it guaranteed that it affects us “no matter how smart, clever and non-directed you think you are”?
If you don’t want to use the card…don’t. Just like if you don’t want to use a coupon you have to cut out of the newspaper…don’t. Go somewhere else, no one is stopping you. The grocery store is giving you an option, take the card or don’t. They are not forcing anything upon you. I have no problem with folks coming in here and griping about them, this is a griping zone. But please don’t act like your civil rights are being violated or some greater purpose needs to be upheld from a store loyalty program that you actually have to opt into.
Do you not think that the grocery stores and marketers are doing everything possible to manipulate you? Or do you not care? Or do you think that your mind is so strong that you are never manipulated by anything or anyone at any time?
This blog post goes over some of the ways that people can be induced into buying more stuff. It mentions the book Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill. It’s an interesting book I read a few years ago, about how much shoppers are studied, and all the little and big things that are done to persuade and manipulate shoppers into buying more.
Now of course, you can stand strong and resist all the manipulations. You can research ahead of time before shopping, write a shopping list and only buy things on it, don’t go shopping while hungry or tired, and several other things. But there will be days when you are tired from a long day at work, and the kids keep bugging you to get Oreos, and it’ll be harder to resist the push to spend more than you had planned.
I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world for stores and marketers to do this, and I’m not losing sleep over it. But I realize that it happens, and try to shop with awareness of it, and it does help me not spend as much when I keep it in mind. But I also don’t think people are stupid or sheep if they are manipulated into purchasing more than they had planned; I know that they are just humans reacting how humans are expected to.
Very well put.
It isn’t that any one facet of marketing* is irresistable. It’s that there’s so damned much of it, everywhere and all the time, and that it’s increasingly come to shape public perception and individual worldview. Even the strongest individual can’t help but be pushed along by its forces, and while we weaken, it maintains - or increases - its force. Helping it do so is the one thing we can all avoid, though.
- Not advertising. To focus the argument on advertising, which is only one facet of marketing, is to miss the point and misdirect both thinking and action.
I think that I’m the one in control of my finances and the one who ultimately decides what I buy. If I’m ok with my expenses and the stuff I buy gets used, who gives a flip. I know I get manipulated into purchasing new products instead of old standbys and sometimes I get new stuff in addition to what I planned to buy but I don’t pretend that anyone made the decision to buy except for me.