Patricia Bathurst
Special for the ABG
Dec. 28, 200612:00 AM
Selling a message to a whole body of people isn't nearly as effective as reaching just the part of the group that wants to hear your pitch.
The concept is niche marketing, and is widely considered to be the hottest, smartest approach to advertising today.
First, you do intense research on who your market is, then you tailor your message to that specific audience. Next, measure whether the audience is responding by using Internet tools that make tracking the information simple and efficient. Last, use the measurements to refine the message further to meet the needs of your specific audience.
If you have a computer and an e-mail address, then you are an ideal candidate for niche marketing. Companies you have done business with (think Amazon or Travelocity) can request your e-mail address, and then, based on your purchasing patterns, send specific e-mails about products and promotions that should attract you. "What worked well 20 or 30 years ago won't do it today," said Roger
Hurni, partner and creative director at Off Madison Ave. in. "Now, there are dozens of ways to communicate."
Stephen Brown, a marketing professor at ASU's W.P. Carey Schoolof Business and director of the Center for Services Leadership, agrees. "What's really helped niche marketing is there are so many ways to reach an audience," Brown said. "Not just the Internet but also the hundreds of television and radio stations that target specific markets and customers. Companies are asking their customers, too, about how and when they buy."
Narrowing the market
Brown describes niche marketing as being fundamentally based on a deeper understanding about who the customer is, then building a message based on that understanding. "You'll use traditional survey methods or you might spend a couple of
hours with individual customers, following them through a store, for
instance, to learn about how they're making purchasing decisions," he said.
Kat Langman, director of strategy and culture with Moses Anshell in Phoenix, said methods
for researching and honing the market also are changing. "This has really evolved over the last few years," she said.
"A blanket campaign can't generate the response you need. You need to
dive deeper and learn who you really need to reach."
Agencies are engaging in significantly more research to learn not just who,
but how, when and why decisions are made about products. "I don't think there's any type of research we haven't done,"
Langman said.
Hurni said clearly focusing a message also changes the dynamic for consumers
because it allows them to demand only the messages they want. "That's the order of the day," he said. "Consumers are saying,
'Don't waste my time.' Marketing is no longer a one-way street, it's a dialogue."
Finding the message
Determining a specific message for a specific group, then backing it with research can make the front-end costs a little higher for businesses. "It adds costs in the beginning, but then, you're sending perhaps 5,000
messages instead of 20,000," Hurni said.
Langman said it is the agency's responsibility, not the client's, to chart
the success of a marketing effort. "It's our responsibility to prove the results, track the changes in
purchasing or perception - each element needs to have a measure," she
said.
Brown said such measurements are increasingly easy to track. Web sites track
visitors, and different households receive different coupon offers. "What happens is that you're more likely to receive messages in your
interest set because marketers are better able to discern customer interests
and what customers really want. It's a win-win for both," he said.
Marketing to masses
Still, mass marketing is not going away.
"There are always going to be companies that need to speak with a broad,
heterogeneous base," Brown said. "Think of utility companies like
APS or SRP, banks, supermarkets, these are companies with information everyone needs. Besides, Langman said, "You may use a mass-marketing vehicle, but target a niche. You have to see how relevant you are and what's important to your
target. Then be different enough in your message to be memorable."