The Bigotry of Mass Marketing

When marketers use mass marketing tools like national television ads they market to the majority.  They have an excuse for not representing "minority" groups like people of color, gays, non-Christians or even women in their advertising.

As marketing becomes more customized; as mass customization becomes more and more common and cost effective; it seems to me that this bigotry of mass marketing no longer stands up.  Marketers no longer have a viable excuse for not reaching out to the various demographic groups that make up their base of customers and potential customers with specific and tailored messages.

Thinking about how to effectively customize your marketing message to the different groups of constituencies in your market is a greater challenge of the new marketing paradigm than figuring out whether to start a Facebook fan page or have your CEO write a blog.

Certainly, there are many issues that marketers must consider when reaching out to a specific group versus marketing to the masses.  For starters, it is harder to find a genuine voice when communicating with segments within the total market.  The literature is filled with advertising missteps by advertisers that simply translated their mass market messages to another language to somewhat disastrous results.  Chevrolet, for instance, learned the hard way when they tried to market their popular Chevy Nova in Latin America that "No Va" in Spanish meant "No go." That is not a very good branding message for a car!

I think that many marketers find it difficult to reach out to subgroups without coming across as pandering and disingenuous.  The problem usually is the result of marketers trying to take short cuts.  A company that truly understands its customers and understands what their needs and interests are, will understand how their products and services meets those needs and interests.  From that point it is a short distance to a marketing message that works within that market!

A company that is still stuck with "mass marketing mind" tends to think of all its customers as the same.  Cultural, gender and lifestyle issues aren't factored into marketing messages because they aren't considered at all.

I guess, in the long run, the message is that social media seems like its cheap, easy and fast.  It seems like a great antidote to shrinking marketing budgets and tighter markets.  But one of the true powers of Internet based media is its ability to customize mass messages almost down to the person.  And customizing mass messages isn't fast, easy or cheap.  It takes knowledge and understanding of the many facets of your market.  It takes the resolve to get to know and understand your market to a degree and a level of detail you've never done before.  It takes a firm, unshakable desire to move away from the ineffective bigotry of mass marketing.