When some customers were going through a major life event … their shopping habits became flexible in ways that were both predictable and potential gold mines for retailers. The study found that when someone marries, he or she is more likely to start buying a new type of coffee. When a couple move into a new house, they’re more apt to purchase a different kind of cereal. When they divorce, there’s an increased chance they’ll start buying different brands of beer.
Consumers going through major life events often don’t notice, or care, that their shopping habits have shifted, but retailers notice, and they care quite a bit. At those unique moments, Andreasen wrote, customers are “vulnerable to intervention by marketers.” In other words, a precisely timed advertisement, sent to a recent divorcee or new homebuyer, can change someone’s shopping patterns for years.
“How Companies Learn Your Secrets,” New York Times Magazine 2/16/2012
Who needs an excuse to relearn privacy policies, re-examine their consumer behaviors, or “give it all up and move to Portland and not wear shoes and live in a tin foil tent”?
