Modern Marketing and Business Practices – helpful or excluding? Linda Lennard Centre for Consumers and Essential Services

Introduction The altered landscape Technological innovation Fitting into providers’ systems Marketing and targeting –Benefits and barriers –Equality and exclusion –Essential services

Sea change in consumer experiences New products, new bundles, new complexities Inter-acting with providers –Coping with interfaces –`Virtual’ transactions –Snakes and ladders: passwords, numbers and codes

Relating to consumers? Customer relationship management - changed meanings of `customer loyalty’ - onus on consumers `Turbo charged’ marketing –targeting –welcoming –excluding

New technologies, new opportunities `Surround sound’ marketing - multimedia - viral marketing Behavioural targeting - data mining - scoring consumers - customising deals

Information paradoxes Consumer benefits and downsides - internet access/banking services - skills and interest Having the right information - making sense of the deals - unpacking the bundles - signed up, locked in

Putting consumers at a disadvantage Vulnerability risk factors –sudden changes –fluctuations and coping long term –resilience and skills Inter-acting with providers - stuck in the call centre - can they recognise my voice? - internet access only?

Essential services too Accessing providers – public and private Getting the right deal Getting the right assistance What are essential services? What services are essential for access? Equality and discrimination implications

Points and questions An immutable fact of life? A proper subject for investigation? What can be done – is there good practice? How should the equality and human rights agenda have an impact? Is consumer protection adequate?