Smile, You’re on Candid Camera

Tracking consumer behavior is nothing new to marketing. Companies have been organizing focus groups and creating surveys for some time as ways to learn more about product preferences, spending power, and demographics. However, this research was typically done with the consumer’s knowledge; their participation was requested and upon completion, the consumers were given some kind of compensation, maybe a gift certificate, free meal, or movie tickets.

The New York Times reports that some stores are monitoring shoppers as they browse a store, handle merchandise, goof off with a funky wig, squirm at a price tag, scold their children, and even look at mannequins inappropriately. Anything else a shopper does while walking the aisles is being captured on videotape. This is not part of the usual surveillance system that stores have set up to capture shoplifters; this is a new method of tracking consumer behavior.

Envirosell workers watch customers browsing in stores, noting what they look at and if they buy. Photo courtesy of The New York Times.

This also taps into new privacy issues. It’s one thing to make sure people are not stealing but a whole other ball game to analyze shoppers for anything that is going to boost sales…especially if people are being monitored without their permission. When I worked in a supermarket I caught someone stealing baby formula just by watching the surveillance video. I wasn’t watching the surveillance video to see which brand of baby food he was stealing, what size container it was, or how the teenager decided to steal that particular one. The supermarket customers were also aware that the store was under surveillance (we had notices posted around the store and there was a “Wall of Shame,” a place where pictures of captured shoplifters was posted.) Will the stores analyzing shoppers notify the shoppers that this is happening? I am going to say probably not because otherwise the shopper’s behavior may be modified and the data being captured may not be true. If a shopper knows he/she is being watched and information about what they look at and buy is being collected, they may amend their usual shopping behavior.

As one shopper told The New York Times:
“When someone’s watching me, I’m going to act differently than when I think I’m alone,” Ms. Albrecht said. “Did I pick my nose? What was I doing? What did they see?”

The “eyes in the sky” are usually there to catch thugs and not conduct market research. But if consumers want to have a better shopping experience and eventually be catered to, are the cameras such a bad thing? Companies are monitoring social media for positive and negative comments about their products, services, or organization and the press is being scoured for any reports relating to the company. This is all done without a consumer’s permission yet their blog posts and product reviews are out there for anyone to see and use to their advantage. Retailers are using what they find to change product packaging, make their brand the brand of choice, or better their service to customers. The extreme with this new tracking shopper initiative is the facial technology, which determines characteristics like someone’s age and gender. This crosses the privacy line in that people can become easily identified and possibly targeted for more research based on their shopping behavior.

I have to agree with Paco Underhill, the founder of Envirosell and a leader in observational research. As stated in The New York Times:

As Mr. Underhill pointed out, people are taped dozens of times each day doing routine chores like pumping gas. Cameras, it seems, are pervasive. Stores are merely the latest frontier.

Advertisement