Mass Marketing VS Target Marketing: Which One Is Better For Startups

Mass marketing has been a life long marketing approach using traditional means of marketing. With the latest technological advancement in digital marketing which has made target marketing even better.

This is because it is cheaper and effective ways of reaching your target market.

When it comes to running a business the type of marketing strategy you adopt is very important. Over the years many companies have moved from mass marketing to targeted marketing. Depending on your product and business model you may adopt any of the two.

However, as a startup, it will be more effective to focus on target marketing. Some of the top best companies in the world now use the targeted marketing approach which is cheaper and more effectively.

Demography Segmentation for Niche Market

Segmentation is one of the most important processes in target marketing as it allows easy breaking down the target audience. This includes-

1. Age
2. Gender
3. Educational qualification
4. Marital Status
5. Income Level
6. Religion
7. Location
8. Economic Class
9. Occupation
10. Ethnic Background
11. Lifestyle
12. Interest, etc.

Some Niche Market Companies

Mercedes is one of the most popular car manufacturing firms in the world, unlike other car markers they only produce cars for a segmented market, those who want luxury, comfort, security, and poise.

Mercedes have adopted the target marketing in their approach which can be seen in their adverts, marketing strategies and products. Some of their cars are limited edition which clearly states that it’s strictly a segmented market. This marketing strategy has made it one of the biggest car manufacturing companies in the world.

Why Target Marketing?

Every startup usually faces a problem of getting their products or services to the right audience and one of the major challenges is lack of funds to reach a wide range of audiences.

The best marketing model would be target marketing, It allows you to segment your audience into demography and focus only on those that that will be interested in your products or services either by age, sex, location, educational qualification, income, etc.

As a startup, it is always better to narrow your focus this will not only help you save money it will also help you build a stronger business reputation and help you plan an effective strategy in reaching your target market. This will make your business more effective, more profitable, build a loyal customer base and also build a lasting business.

Mass Marketing and Target Marketing

Mass marketing is a form of marketing that tries to reach as many people as possible. In mass marketing, the focus is on the numbers while Target marketing tries to reach a segmented or specific audience. Mass marketing employs several approaches to get the messages out to the largest possible audience.

Mass Marketing at a Glance

The easiest way to explain mass marketing is like casting a wide net into the ocean with the aim of catching so many fishes. This means you will require a bigger net, a bigger boat and also many hands to help out. Since this kind of marketing is open to all you will catch all forms of fishes, big small and species of different fishes.

Mass marketing focuses on low price and high volume which usually make the profit margin little.

The marketing channels in mass marketing are usually the traditional marketing channel like radio, Television, magazines, and newspapers. This strategy focuses on low price to drive high sales. It focuses on volumes and numbers. Mass marketing examples include telecommunication companies, detergents, drinks, consumer goods, etc.

Target Marketing

Target marketing is also known as niche marketing, is highly specialized. Unlike the mass market where you just throw out an advert to a wide range of audience the niche market offers a more streamlined platform. However, this gives you a smaller market share compared to those in the niche market.

On the other hand, target marketing focuses on a few well-defined customer base and strategies to reach those who are only interested in your products or services. In Niche marketing you are focusing on a refined and segmented target audience.

Niche market product examples are organic beauty products for people worried about using non-organic products for their skin. In target marketing, the market is broken into segments or demographics
Mass market means you want to service or sell to a large group or audience while target market means you are selling to a small group of audience who are interested in your products or services.

Difference between Target marketing and Mass Marketing

• Mass marketing is more expensive than Target marketing
• It targets everyone even those that may not need the products while niche marketing is only targeted at those that may need it
• Mass marketing produces fast results compared to niche marketing
• Target marketing requires time to develop which includes a custom strategy for the target market segment
• It is easier to measure the success of target marketing compared to the mass marketing

Advantages of Mass Marketing

It reaches a wide range of audiences
Maximum product/services exposure
It reaches a wide range of audience

Disadvantages of Mass marketing

It is not cost effective, It is expensive to run as you will need to reach a wide range of audiences
It is hard to measure its effectiveness
Profit margin is usually low
It requires a lot of manpower

Advantages of Target marketing

Target marketing is cheaper and more affordable
It offers a great profit margin
It offers a better chance for leads

It’s easy to build loyal and returning customers because this marketing is custom made for them

Disadvantages of Target Marketing

It often takes time to see the result
it requires lots of planning and strategy to determine the target market
Mass marketing VS Target marketing

Every brand is looking for the most cost-effective ways to reach a wide range of audiences. As a startup, the best approach you may want to consider is target marketing as this gives you the flexibility to reach people who may be interested in your products or services. The target marketing gets the message out only to those who may be interested compared to the niche.

Unlike the mass market which relies majorly on the traditional means on marketing like the TV, radio, print media, etc. the target market uses the power of technology and social media to reach a wide range of the specified target audiences.

Targetted marketing helps save time and money on all your marketing campaigns, however, it requires a lot of research and strategy to be able to determine the demography, where and how to reach your potential audience, what they want versus what they need.

Why You Should Adopt Target Marketing

High conversion rate: One of the reasons why you should adopt target marketing over niche marketing is it has a high conversion rate compared to mass marketing.

Can be measured: Target marketing can easily be measured in terms of result, metric, etc.

High quality Leads: Due to the fact that you are targeting those who may be interested in your products, Target marketing only offers your products/services to only those who may be interested in your offers thereby offering high-quality leads.

Promotes Customer Loyalty: Niche marketing allows you to offers custom messages to your client and because the client and the company have the same goals and vision. there is a connection between the company and the customers which help build customer loyalty.

Helps improve the quality of products and services: Since the products and services are customized to suit the target audience need. This usually ensures the company improves the quality of their products and services.

Examples of Target Marketing Platforms

Social Media

Social media is one of the best things to happen to the world of advertisement, it allows you to reach a wide range of audiences through different demography which can either be age, sex, location, educational background, interest, etc Some examples of social media sites for niche marketing include, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.

Content Marketing

Since content is king in every marketing endeavor, It’s therefore important to adopt content marketing for your target marketing needs. This is one of the best ways to reach your target audience because you are creating content that only appeals to them. For example, instead of creating generic blog posts, you can create posts that are tailored for your audience that way you can communicate effectively and meet their specific needs.

Email Marketing

Another way to reach your target audience is through email marketing, You can send emails to people within a specific niche, eg if you sell basketball equipment and you have an email list of basketball professionals, you can easily send them a custom message about your products or services.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine Optimisation has to do with the practice of increasing the searchability of your website using the search engines. This can be done by creating contents based on keywords that are related to the specific fields. Using SEO helps you identify words, phrases, and keywords that your target audience uses when doing a search, you can then develop contents based on their frequently searched words.

Paid Search

Another great way to reach your target audience is to also do a targeted keyword paid search. So that when people search for some related keywords your products or services comes on the top pages on search engines.

Banner Ads

You can also place banners ads on related niche sites. You can do that either through direct placements or through Google ads.

Paid Post

Another easy way to reach your target audience is target marketing through paid post which can come in the form of guest blogging, paid blog post, etc If you have a niche site that focuses on a category that is related to your product or services, that means many of your potential customers are already on the site. That way you can easily reach them through a sponsored post on the blog.

Final Words on Mass VS Target Marketing

It has shown that Mass marketing can be effective in getting your products to the right audience but it is not the best approach for startups due to the fact that it requires lots of resources, manpower and funding. On the other hand, niche marketing provides a more efficient way to reach your segmented audience in an efficient, reliable and effective way.

The Niche market also provides a level ground for small startups to compete with big corporations without necessarily having a huge budget.