In a beta version of the free trend report ' We The Web ' I wrote the following text at the end of December 2010: “Think of Albert Heijn, for example. In the past, the products on the shelves were counted once a month to determine which stocks had to be replenished. Now, thanks to modern cash registers, it is possible to determine the stock at any time of the day. Then combine this data with the bonus card, the debit card and the Appie application on the iPhone and the supermarket chain knows exactly what its customers had on the menu last week. What's more, based on this data they are even able to predict what will be eaten the following week.
In this way, Albert Heijn has a powerful tool in its hands to control the behavior of its customers. And this is of course the Valhalla for companies. Not only predicting, but also actually being able to influence the behavior of customers. Which marketer does not dream of this?”
Digitization of the physical world
Albert Heijn is not yet getting the most out of its current discount campaign. Once every bolivia phone number list four weeks, the consumer is presented with a number of offers. But reduce this period of four weeks to a few days or to real time. That is the future we are heading towards. With this campaign, Albert Heijn makes it clear that companies are entering a new phase thanks to the digitalisation of the physical world. The enormous database of data that it has collected about its customers itself, and not to forget the digital footprints that their customers leave on the web via all kinds of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc., gives them a unique insight into their consumers. Companies can use this 'Big Data' to digitally reconstruct someone's personality. The trick for companies now is to understand and fathom this avatar. What is this avatar looking for? What does he want? How can we help this avatar? Questions that should ultimately lead to directing the behaviour of the underlying physical person and, as it were, to entice them to make more purchases.