Reflexive marketing: the cultural circuit of loyalty programs

The amount of personal data now collected through contemporary marketingpractices is indicative of the shifting landscape of contemporary capitalism. Loyaltyprograms can be seen as one exemplar of this, using the ‘add-ons’ of ‘points’ and ‘miles’to entice consumers into divulging a range of personal information. These consumers aresubject to surveillance practices that have digitally identified them as significant in theeyes of a corporation, yet they are also part of a feedback loop subject to ongoinganalysis. This paper focuses on this analysis as the ‘cultural circuit’ of loyalty programs—the ongoing process of meaning-making in this form of contemporary marketing—asexemplary of what Nigel Thrift calls “soft capitalism”(1997, 2005). Loyalty programsengage consumers in an ongoing ‘relationship’ with a corporation, yet it is onepredicated on the collection and analysis of personal data in order to identify, maintainand increase profits from these consumer ‘relationships.’ This paper looks at ways ofknowing, application and revision in the cultural circuit of loyalty program marketingas a form of reflexive marketing and raises concerns about consumer subjectivity in thecontext consumer culture that mediates much of contemporary experience. Thesetechnologies and practices continually adapt and adjust to strategically act towardconsumers as a form of consumer surveillance based on an increasingly intensive andnuanced knowledge of their behaviours