A couple of days ago I got into a bit of a heated discussion about online marketing strategies. My partner, a young woman who I’ll call Lisa, defended the idea that the “dividing and conquer” marketing strategy is not the best idea for what she wanted to do – *gasp!* According to her, it would limit her market. I argued otherwise – it is essential no matter what.
Lisa wants to sell trendy hair clips. When I asked about her target market she answered, “women.” I prompted for a more specific answer and she looked at me with a puzzled face clearly not understanding why I asked the question. From that moment we both knew we had to defend our points. She took her stance, I took mine, and we started arguing.
The result? We agreed to disagree… just because we ran out of time. But I have a blog and Lisa doesn’t so, Ha! Don’t mind if I have the last word on this awesome blog.
Okay Lisa and people who agree with Lisa, dividing (or segmenting) your market is not a new concept nor an outdated one, it’s a strategy being used more and more given the current overflow of information available.
Remember Joe the Plumber in the last US elections? Named dozens of times, yet the candidates weren’t talking about Joe in particular, rather, it was a brilliant way to address people with Joe’s background – concerned about jobs, national security, income taxes, etc. (As McCain said, “you’re all Joe the Plumbers!”)
That didn’t mean that the candidates talked less about the environment, corporate taxes, international relations and all other subjects that were not on the top of Joe’s concern list. But when they talked to Joe, they made sure to talk about the stuff that mattered to him.
It’s the same thing with marketing, particularly on the Internet.
People go online to look for specific information and pay attention to sites that provide it, very few just wander around. Accordingly, the more directly you talk to your audience, the more likely they’ll actually listen.
Most sites have specific audiences; Axe, Shiseido, Revlon, you can tell they crafted their site and messages for an specific audience. Other sites that need to address different audiences from a same landing page, like universities (check out SFU and UBC), have very different sections for graduate students, undergraduate students, athletic students, etc. – almost separate microsites. They’re all trying to divide and conquer.
You can’t market a product to everyone – no, no, no! If you’re able to package a message so compelling that engages both, teenage and senior women, let me know and I’ll take it all back. But dividing a target to better manage resources is an advice that has been given for thousands of years and a strategy used since who knows when – Sun Tzu, Caesar, Alexander, Machiavelli, Rambo, Obama… I’m sure they all are on my side.
But to be fair, let me ask you, the reader. Do you know of any cases where targeting a general market – such as “women” – would work?
Funny!!! I firmly believe in the divide and conquer strategy for marketing campaigns. If not, you will be wasting time and resources using a shotgun approach. Divide and conquer strategy allows you to pull out your sniper rifle and get those that are really interested. Maybe Lisa has more to her argument but it sounds like 1 up Jose.
Can you tell me who did your layout? I’ve been looking for one kind of like yours. Thank you.
Barton:
I completely agree with you. The worst part is that I wasn’t exaggerating about her target being “all women.” I’m sure she’ll meet someone else a little more persuasive that will convince her to do otherwise, learn it by trial and error, or who knows, maybe we’re all wrong :).
Having said that, Lisa’s a great person and a pleasure to talk to.
Nice read, I just passed this onto a colleague who was doing some research on that. And he actually bought me lunch as I found it for him smile So let me rephrase that: Thanks for lunch!