'Big Brother' becomes big business
CNN April 7, 2005
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/04/06/consumer.surveillance/
Paul Eden loves his job. It takes him into people's homes and offices and allows him to film their daily lives.
Eden heads Ogilvy Field Brand Investigation (FBI), a division of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the world's largest advertising agencies.
He's commissioned by companies to provide video research of consumers, providing vital insights into their likes and dislikes.
Since launching the research unit in London five years ago, Eden says interest among big corporations has spiraled.
"The real bonus for clients is that they can eyeball the people who are important to them," Eden told CNN.
"This is the way we can invite the consumer into the boardroom. These natural social environments are natural brand environments. Respondents are more willing to talk truthfully about themselves and we're offered the opportunity of seeing them interact with brands and play with brands too which is of course enormously appealing."
There's nothing underhand about Eden's work. All his interviewees are willing participants who have given their consent to be filmed. But that's a legal requirement that is being pushed to the limit by new technologies.
A retail outlet in Belgium recently became the first company in Europe to run a pilot system developed by Sony which uses in-store cameras to film customers for consumer analysis.
The surveillance system allows observers to keep track of how many people are in the store, but also follow their routes, check what they're looking at and what they're ignoring.
Together that information would help retailers identify "hot spots" and "cold spots," giving them vital information for maximizing revenue potential.
As with existing CCTV security systems, stores are obliged to put up clearly displayed notices informing customers that they are being watched.
But marketing analyst Alysen Stewart-Allen of International Marketing Partners said companies using surveillance technology still risked alienating their customers.
"One of the things that any brand needs to consider when they're using this kind of market research tool is how is the consumer going to respond if they are told they are being videoed," said Stewart-Allen.
"If you're a retailer and you're using video taping and they learn somehow that you're filming them and many other people, they could be put off from ever visiting your store again."
But in a culture of CCTV, speed cameras and reality television shows, perhaps it's the case that we're all now more comfortable with the idea of being watched -- something that marketing executives are only now waking up to.
"I think reality television has had an impact in as much as people have become more and more accustomed to cameras in their lives," said Eden.
"And they've also become more and more accustomed to the fact that people are watched for entertainment and for commercial purposes. It's become part of the fabric of our existence."
I'm drawing your attention to this article because it requires some debunking.
The bit highlighted in red is balderdash...CCTV cameras ever since they've been in shops have been used for market research.
I studied advanced business for a year when i was a good little NWO slave and one module was on marketing.
My marketing teacher (who had been in market research for 30 years) openly told us that CCTV cameras aren't really for making sure no one steals, they are to get market research for almost no cost.
Normally research with paid participants costs thousands, however research like this saves them a huge amount of money...they're not looking for if you're stealing stuff in a supermarket, most people assume they would'nt get away with it so they dont even try, and of a small percentage that would try it the loss of a few items is economically nothing compared to what an honest market research project would cost.
And now most if not all supermarkets have magnetic tags on the expensive items like spirits and electronic goods which set off an alarm when you leave, they have no real need for CCTV cameras in a security capacity...most people would find it very hard to steal from a supermarket and my marketing teacher also told me that supermerkets are designed with specific psychological techniques to create a situation where the urge to steal in most of the population is gone.
The rates of theft are so so low that if those cameras really were for people stealing stuff they wouldnt even break even with the cost of hiring someone to watch the camera along with the electronic equipment itself.
Do you really believe that so many big corporations would all make such poor finantial moves? Of course not..because the cameras are there for watching what demographic buys what, how long they look at the label, what they're looking for, how they make the decision, if they hesitate etc.
They can then track you to the checkout and if you use a loyalty card they have that information along with the data they got with the video camera...precise things like how long it took you to make a decision, what you read on the product packaging, did you look at the price or the brand, were you swayed by the position of another item, your body language, your facial expressions, did you immediately pick out a widely advertised brand etc etc etc ad infinitum.
Plus the loyalty card gives them another set of data...how many times you've bought that particular product...and if the really want they can go to the companies that souly exist to gather profiles on you from the internet, surveys, other loyalty cards you have, your tastes from datamining cookies on the internet etc.
This was openly taught to me in marketing class by a man who did this professionally.
Think about it do you really think they set up elaborate cctv systems to catch people stealing bread or sweets? coz the expensive things are tagged and set off those alarms if you steal them.
Lets get real folks.
Also now consider the ramifications that a national id card would have...all this information merged into one huge file...with all the market research done on every person the government could merge that with all the stuff on the id card...criminal records, dna, fingerprint, holiday locations...the forms you fill out at the airport as to where you're going and what you're doing aren't thrown away you know :-P
Think of the even further surveilence if you had an RFID/GPS chip...which is going into car inspection stickers in some US states...in the uk theres talk of it going into the id cards.
Think about it...you're watched and scientifically catalogued when you're shopping..soon id cards(certainly in the UK) you'l have a gps chip on your card (which can tack you where ever you go), you're followed by public camera into your car, your car could have a camera watching your face as the previous article shows, you get home and the data mining cookies track where you go...Do you think tv isnt tracked?
Do you remember when janet jackson got her boobs out and TIVO said it was a record pause and rewind statistic? How do you think they knew that? hmm?
I also studied advanced IT and on the digital box we have in our house its very obviously a 2 way thing...i mean its got an ethernet connection on the back and a usb port ...lol, i can send and recieve emails on it and play games...dont think for one second that it cant report back to the cable company with your viewing habits.
There are now helecopters too that see through walls and its been admitted that cell phones can be used to track you and thats infact how they caught some guys in the war in afganistan.
There was a news story here of a girl who was kidnapped and they found her by triangulating her phone...its pretty simply geometry really.
Every so often your cell phone sends a signal back to the tower, you just calculate the distance from the tower by the time it takes for the signal to get to the tower.
Its now even been admitted that phones can listen in even if theyre not on...the lithium batteries in them aren't just for memory folks.
There was a new thing in london of microphones on the lamp posts.
Every area of your life its being scientifically studied to get a psychological profile on you...i'd say they know more about some people than their own family do.
I have to say that this is even further than 1984...a shouting telescreen is one thing...even winston smith had a corner he could sit in unseen...but you go outside especially in england and theres no where you can go without being watced.
The telescreens described sound innefficiant compared to the cameras we have today with their face recognition software and the likes.
I dont think the situation we're in has any comparison anymore to any past dictatorship or work of fiction...we've surpassed them all.
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/04/06/consumer.surveillance/
Paul Eden loves his job. It takes him into people's homes and offices and allows him to film their daily lives.
Eden heads Ogilvy Field Brand Investigation (FBI), a division of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the world's largest advertising agencies.
He's commissioned by companies to provide video research of consumers, providing vital insights into their likes and dislikes.
Since launching the research unit in London five years ago, Eden says interest among big corporations has spiraled.
"The real bonus for clients is that they can eyeball the people who are important to them," Eden told CNN.
"This is the way we can invite the consumer into the boardroom. These natural social environments are natural brand environments. Respondents are more willing to talk truthfully about themselves and we're offered the opportunity of seeing them interact with brands and play with brands too which is of course enormously appealing."
There's nothing underhand about Eden's work. All his interviewees are willing participants who have given their consent to be filmed. But that's a legal requirement that is being pushed to the limit by new technologies.
A retail outlet in Belgium recently became the first company in Europe to run a pilot system developed by Sony which uses in-store cameras to film customers for consumer analysis.
The surveillance system allows observers to keep track of how many people are in the store, but also follow their routes, check what they're looking at and what they're ignoring.
Together that information would help retailers identify "hot spots" and "cold spots," giving them vital information for maximizing revenue potential.
As with existing CCTV security systems, stores are obliged to put up clearly displayed notices informing customers that they are being watched.
But marketing analyst Alysen Stewart-Allen of International Marketing Partners said companies using surveillance technology still risked alienating their customers.
"One of the things that any brand needs to consider when they're using this kind of market research tool is how is the consumer going to respond if they are told they are being videoed," said Stewart-Allen.
"If you're a retailer and you're using video taping and they learn somehow that you're filming them and many other people, they could be put off from ever visiting your store again."
But in a culture of CCTV, speed cameras and reality television shows, perhaps it's the case that we're all now more comfortable with the idea of being watched -- something that marketing executives are only now waking up to.
"I think reality television has had an impact in as much as people have become more and more accustomed to cameras in their lives," said Eden.
"And they've also become more and more accustomed to the fact that people are watched for entertainment and for commercial purposes. It's become part of the fabric of our existence."
I'm drawing your attention to this article because it requires some debunking.
The bit highlighted in red is balderdash...CCTV cameras ever since they've been in shops have been used for market research.
I studied advanced business for a year when i was a good little NWO slave and one module was on marketing.
My marketing teacher (who had been in market research for 30 years) openly told us that CCTV cameras aren't really for making sure no one steals, they are to get market research for almost no cost.
Normally research with paid participants costs thousands, however research like this saves them a huge amount of money...they're not looking for if you're stealing stuff in a supermarket, most people assume they would'nt get away with it so they dont even try, and of a small percentage that would try it the loss of a few items is economically nothing compared to what an honest market research project would cost.
And now most if not all supermarkets have magnetic tags on the expensive items like spirits and electronic goods which set off an alarm when you leave, they have no real need for CCTV cameras in a security capacity...most people would find it very hard to steal from a supermarket and my marketing teacher also told me that supermerkets are designed with specific psychological techniques to create a situation where the urge to steal in most of the population is gone.
The rates of theft are so so low that if those cameras really were for people stealing stuff they wouldnt even break even with the cost of hiring someone to watch the camera along with the electronic equipment itself.
Do you really believe that so many big corporations would all make such poor finantial moves? Of course not..because the cameras are there for watching what demographic buys what, how long they look at the label, what they're looking for, how they make the decision, if they hesitate etc.
They can then track you to the checkout and if you use a loyalty card they have that information along with the data they got with the video camera...precise things like how long it took you to make a decision, what you read on the product packaging, did you look at the price or the brand, were you swayed by the position of another item, your body language, your facial expressions, did you immediately pick out a widely advertised brand etc etc etc ad infinitum.
Plus the loyalty card gives them another set of data...how many times you've bought that particular product...and if the really want they can go to the companies that souly exist to gather profiles on you from the internet, surveys, other loyalty cards you have, your tastes from datamining cookies on the internet etc.
This was openly taught to me in marketing class by a man who did this professionally.
Think about it do you really think they set up elaborate cctv systems to catch people stealing bread or sweets? coz the expensive things are tagged and set off those alarms if you steal them.
Lets get real folks.
Also now consider the ramifications that a national id card would have...all this information merged into one huge file...with all the market research done on every person the government could merge that with all the stuff on the id card...criminal records, dna, fingerprint, holiday locations...the forms you fill out at the airport as to where you're going and what you're doing aren't thrown away you know :-P
Think of the even further surveilence if you had an RFID/GPS chip...which is going into car inspection stickers in some US states...in the uk theres talk of it going into the id cards.
Think about it...you're watched and scientifically catalogued when you're shopping..soon id cards(certainly in the UK) you'l have a gps chip on your card (which can tack you where ever you go), you're followed by public camera into your car, your car could have a camera watching your face as the previous article shows, you get home and the data mining cookies track where you go...Do you think tv isnt tracked?
Do you remember when janet jackson got her boobs out and TIVO said it was a record pause and rewind statistic? How do you think they knew that? hmm?
I also studied advanced IT and on the digital box we have in our house its very obviously a 2 way thing...i mean its got an ethernet connection on the back and a usb port ...lol, i can send and recieve emails on it and play games...dont think for one second that it cant report back to the cable company with your viewing habits.
There are now helecopters too that see through walls and its been admitted that cell phones can be used to track you and thats infact how they caught some guys in the war in afganistan.
There was a news story here of a girl who was kidnapped and they found her by triangulating her phone...its pretty simply geometry really.
Every so often your cell phone sends a signal back to the tower, you just calculate the distance from the tower by the time it takes for the signal to get to the tower.
Its now even been admitted that phones can listen in even if theyre not on...the lithium batteries in them aren't just for memory folks.
There was a new thing in london of microphones on the lamp posts.
Every area of your life its being scientifically studied to get a psychological profile on you...i'd say they know more about some people than their own family do.
I have to say that this is even further than 1984...a shouting telescreen is one thing...even winston smith had a corner he could sit in unseen...but you go outside especially in england and theres no where you can go without being watced.
The telescreens described sound innefficiant compared to the cameras we have today with their face recognition software and the likes.
I dont think the situation we're in has any comparison anymore to any past dictatorship or work of fiction...we've surpassed them all.
posted by Simeon at 11:27 pm
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