This is what can happen if you use your credit card at Target. It seems that, like many stores, Target likes to, uh, target its customers with specific mailings. In the linked story from Forbes, we read that a teenage girl became with child unbeknownst to her father, who upbraided the local store's manager for sending coupons to his daughter, still in high school, that, to him, appeared to encourage her to get pregnant.
The local manager had no idea about the model that analysts back at headquarters had built to identify possibly pregnant women and offer them timely coupons. Target's statistical model is so good that they can predict the due date within a reasonably small window.
I have an old friend who would love this -- that is, if he didn't go to work for Target and help create it. He worked in the marketing department of a credit card company. I have stood next to him looking out at the parking lot as people arrived and listened to him tell me all about the number of kids the drivers had and their approximate ages, etc., based on the make, model, and year of the car they were parking. It was his hobby even more than his job.
Most of the time companies want to put people on a mailing list and assign a customer number. It is likely that one of the reasons for Sam's and Costco requiring a membership is to help them track customers. Almost all the bigger retailers from Bass Pro to Best Buy to Krogers have some kind of system they want to get customers keyed into to allow targeted marketing. I have no particular problem with the process when it is voluntary and overt.
We just need to be aware that modern "mad men" have methods of tracking us and marketing to us with specific strategies. It is a sign of the times. Mass marketing and mass media are passing away as the only way to profitability. In the age the 3-D printer and the smart phone app, you can personalize and individualize your world. Remember, though, somebody may be watching you.
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