The dividualised consumer: sketching the new mask of the consumer

Recent online marketing innovations such as ad-servers, ad-networks and ad-exchanges allow marketers to extract value from consumer data in new ways. But these new market devices do not just exploit technological innovations. They are constructed around a revolutionary new mask of the consumer. They treat consumers not as fixed individuals but as dividualised consumers – that is to say, collections of data that can be exposed, dissected and segmented into new marketable groups. After sketching out how marketing devices and theories have worked to define new marketplace behaviours, the paper turns to Deleuze’s explanation of control societies to consider the social implications of these new marketing techniques within societies that are increasingly mediated through networked relationships.