Tescos launch marketing surveillance systems

A few days ago Tesco announced that they’re introducing a marketing surveillance system into their forecourt stores.

The system analyses footage of the bodies and faces of shoppers to understand their gender and age. This information tailors video billboard ads around the store, presenting ads tuned to the demographic profile of visitors in the shop.

It’ll be interesting to see how far the retailers push this technology. Some scenarios might be..

  • A bunch of 20-somethings in on a saturday night? Advertise the latest video games and pop sensations.
  • All women? Roll the cosmetics ads.
  • Families with children could be treated to ads for the latest toy craze, only to face the the product bang next to the till, just within reach of the kids.

When you link information about the age and genders of your customers with the number-plates (and thus owner’s postcodes) on the forecourt, you’ve got a very good understanding of your customers – well before they’ve decided what to buy. This could nicely influence basket mix and size.

How will customers feel about this? I think we’re just about to start finding out.

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Some under-stimulated shoppers

Most customers realise that their transaction, socio-economic and demographic data is being mined on the web to deliver product recommendations. These suggestions tend to be seen as a nice website feature, not an invasion of privacy.

When this starts happening in a public environment, it’ll be interesting to see if people feel differently about how corporations analyse and profile their data. You walk into a petrol station and suddenly the TV ad changes – you’ve changed the customer demographic just by walking into the shop.
Like all integrated marketing technology, Tesco’s success with this system is only going to determined by the care taken in its implementation. I’m hoping retailers will steer away from over-exploiting this capability and making the shopping experience less pleasant, for every demographic.


 

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