Media avalanche followed by shit storm on social media
This news was followed by a major media avalanche, not to mention the shit storm that raged about the supermarket on social media. The NOS news opened with it, various anti-discrimination clubs showed their displeasure and even the College for Human Rights reacted disapprovingly. Is all this fuss justified? Opinions are strongly divided on this.
Discrimination or looking for nails at low tide?
In the AD, the AH employee who tipped the newspaper off talked about 'ethnic profiling, perhaps even discrimination'. Lucienne Gena, director of the Discrimination Reporting Center Region Amsterdam (MDRA), told the NOS: “It is ethnic profiling. A large retail company also has a social responsibility, everyone has to think about how to present something. (…) This is not that complicated, it is stereotyping. You cannot link poverty to a skin color.”
This is not so complicated, it is stereotyping. You cannot link poverty to a skin color.
But Laurens Sloot, professor of retail marketing, dismisses the criticism to the NOS as “finding nails at low tide”. He argues that the supermarket chain mainly wants to make it tangible for employees what type of customer comes to their stores. He simply says: “Albert Heijn is often in the big cities and the percentage of immigrants is higher there than in the countryside, so it is not strange that there are drawings of people with both a lighter and a darker skin colour.”
You can agree or disagree with those who are calling for or against it, but that doesn't really matter. Whatever you think, it should be clear: this is offensive to many people. That can never be the canada mobile number list intention (and undoubtedly wasn't the intention of AH either). So let me say up front: I find this way of filling in profiles to be, to put it mildly, not helpful.
The opportunities of pigeonholing
But all the fuss aside, the use of customer profiles or personas is of course not unique in itself. Marketing professor Kitty Koelemeijer argues in the Volkskrant that almost every company that deals with consumers “creates personas or customer profiles”. She continues that there is always a risk that such a profile is “too simplistic”. But the fact that it is a recognisable person to get a feel for it does not mean that everyone who fits within such a profile is actually like that. Related to Albert Heijn: “That does not mean that every customer in a village does their shopping in a floral dress.”
Not every customer in a village goes shopping in a floral dress.
I recognize this from my daily practice. My colleagues and I create personas and profiles for many organizations in all conceivable sectors, and see that it is a very valuable tool for them. In marketing, sales or communication and in the daily service provision - to internal and external customers.