If you have worked with marketing long enough, you can still remember how relatively simple it was to reach consumer segments a few years back. It was predominantly supply-driven mass marketing for a handful of well-defined consumer segments via traditional paid and owned channels.
Don’t get me wrong, mass marketing still has its benefits from a cost perspective – economies of scale, reaching a large audience etc. But it also rests on the more and more outdated assumption that you can target a homogenous group of consumers with a relevant message and create excitement about your brand.
The individualization of society and people have produced much more complex and demand-driven groups of consumers. New generations identify themselves as more diverse in terms of gender, age, race, religion, culture, and economics. At the same time technology has matured considerably. Consequently, we are seeing a shift from mass to micro with consumer demands becoming more personalized, more niche orientated.
The chilled revelation of Arya’s kill list
At Deloitte, we suggest that both B2C and B2B companies try to incorporate the shift from mass to micro into their marketing and sales strategy.
Instead of targeting macro-segments who no longer define themselves as such with a linear “path to purchase” they should rather target micro-segments (think from five to 5.000 segments) and build experience eco-systems to help consumers become “who they want to be”. This means searching for relevance in specific occasions in a blend between digital and physical, and between delivery and in-store experiences.
PepsiCo, who makes the soft drink Mountain Dew, made a brilliant marketing move illustrating my point. Before the last season of the popular series Game of Thrones was aired, PepsiCo produced 9,000 white cans under the slogan “A Can Has No Name” referring to the character Arya Stark, who is trained by a guild of assassins called the Faceless Men. In tribute to GOT, Mountain Dew gave up its iconic green colour for a white, brand-less can. When warm, the can appeared nameless, but once chilled it revealed Arya’s kill list as a reminder of her remaining targets for the final season. The campaign is a good example (not only because I am a fan) but also of how to target a micro-segment for a special occasion.
At Deloitte we have made a (more harmless) list of examples where we have helped clients in the shift from mass to micro. Use it as inspiration:
- A national restaurant chain is adopting location-specific pricing for localised market demands
- A large apparel company use predictive signals to design and deploy market-specific store formats
- A vitamin company produces custom vitamins to meet users’ specific gut microbiome needs
- A food and beverage company customises a recipe for local tastes
- A grocery retailer offers curb side pickup, front-door delivery, and in-garage delivery
- A mass retailer deploys precision-level inventory based on predictive signals
- A toy company successfully targets an underserved Latino population with tailored messaging
- An automotive company offers software-enabled, subscription-based vehicle customisation for enhanced personalisation
The How: Business-driven AI and data
AI and data are rapidly changing B2C and B2B business processes. As the digital toolbox gets more mature and advanced, consumer brands, retailers and suppliers can find new ways to make themselves relevant in different buying contexts. For example, e-commerce sites can give personalised recommendations and layouts. Depending on who visits, the site will feature entirely different content eliminating the need for site navigation.
Likewise, physical stores can use data as the foundation for offering more personalized experiences when shoppers enter through the door: “Hi Alexander, based on your last order, maybe you will find this interesting…” Or a similar phrasing best suited to fit the style and tone of voice of a particular brand. Similarly, we are seeing a spike in quick delivery services. Think of yourself and the last time you were in a setting, where you became aware of an instant need to purchase something. Efficient shipping options for whenever and where you are is becoming the norm.
Even though it is possible to build all sorts of campaigns based on AI and data, it is important to remember that the transition from mass to micro should be business driven, tech enabled (not the other way around). You need to understand the micro-occasions and the consumers you want to serve and then leverage technology to create relevant messaging with first party (1P) data. As you gain deeper knowledge, you can scale from there and build an ecosystem where you leverage third party (3P) data such as Google and social media to enrich your view of customers and spot unseen trends.
More out-of-the-box-campaigns
The shift from mass to micro affects the heart of the consumer businesses, crossing the value chain, including functions like product design, merchandising, experience management, pricing, inventory management, supply chain, and more. Brands succeeding with this journey view the transition as a business model shift rather than incremental improvement of business functions.
The opportunity in this growing trend is to tap into the demand-based and personalized shopping experiences. Research shows that today’s customers will be more loyal to ‘experiences’ than to brands, products or companies. Technology can provide solutions to this shift in the nature of loyalty by offering more relevant customer experiences. With this eminent shift, your mass to micro capability becomes strategically important – and potentially gives you a competitive edge if you move fast.
If you are in the B2B industry and you have come this far in the blog thinking, it’s not relevant for me, I am afraid that behind every B2B buyer there is a consumer which has just had a great shopping experience. And they are increasingly projecting their personal experiences into their working life thinking it should be no different.
So, my advice is to get started on the journey from traditional marketing and sales activities towards more targeted out-of-the-box micro-segmentation campaigns.
Forfatter spotlight
