Marketing as surveillance

Marketing as surveillance (from Inside Marketing, 2012, ed. Zwick and Cayla)

“The consumer becomes “known” in the compartmentalization of their data, “assembled” in the production of a consumer “brand,” and all of this is made possible by forms of commercial sociology that operate as complex andeffective surveillance systems. This notion of commercial sociology describesthe kinds of analysis done by contemporary marketing companies. Customers are reduced to datasets, as information about purchasing preferences and proclivities is detailed to provide marketers with useful profiles. Such commercial sociology thus simulates consumers for analysis. But it also interprets these behaviors and normalizes them as a part of the surveillance process and, in addition, incorporates further information on the activities and preferences of consumers as feedback”

http://ebooks.narotama.ac.id/files/Inside%20Marketing;%20Practices,%20Ideolog…