Targetting, like dating but scarier

Targetting ..like dating ,but trickier?

Just like marketing as a whole has become more complex these days so it is with targetting., which is the business of brands looking to meet consumers to live happily ever after, or at least until the next purchase.

Pre internet there was a widely held school of thought in packaged consumer goods which promoted the notion of targetting precise consumer clusters with your branded offer, which often meant any given category might contain a multiplicity of brands targetting specific consumer profiles, segments , benefits and needs . Then as now there were different approaches to the resulting issue of selecting the most appropriate brand strategy,typically of either using one umbrella brand with sub brands to cover category wide opportunities ,all leveraging the core brand benefit, or launching multiple stand alone brands with the attendant additional marketing and organizational costs and complexity.

Today the "Evidence Based Marketing" doctrine holds and demonstrates that actually not only ( and here I exaggerate deliberately) are the old truths unfounded , but that evidentially it is broadly sufficient to have as a target anyone with a pulse and access to a wallet( which removes any biais towards cute puppies...) . The examples in "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp are startling. The book is pretty much a giant wrecking ball to previous marketing beliefs and operating systems in branded consumer goods , and had me on the edge of a minor existential crisis for a while...

And yet this new broad based mass market reality doesn't make targetting any easier for marketers today, the dating game of brand seeks consumer goes on and has become arguably more complex. Today the consumer always brings their today's best friend along , social media and their friend outrage.

Marketers must now navigate an increasingly complex series of potential gaffes :being seen as unauthentic by jumping on the fashionable bandwagons of the day ,showing a lack of respect and sensitivity towards topics such as Inclusivity ,diversity , cultural misappropriation, gender stereotyping, corporate social responsibility and respect for the environment.

The recent and public debate about the charity label for the Johhny Walker brand of whisky featuring a female icon is a timely example of the potential pitfalls . The sceptic in me wonders how many whisky drinkers actually select a whisky brand based on the number of women in the boardroom or the distillery. It is also way too easy for this initiative , as others have pointed out elsewhere, to be seen as patronising to women, which is surely the very opposite of the brand owner's intentions.

In retail by contrast consumer shopper behaviour has increasingly been to gravitate away from the mass middle market one concept fits all targetting model and towards dare I say it more targetted offerings, be it in grocery or fashion...

So from a Brandbuilder perspective what lessons can be drawn to help brands find their Happily ever after consumer partners?

Put simply,brands must show respect to consumers and be true to who they are and what they stand for. The better you know and respect your consumer , the more you discuss, listen, and ask for permission, like in any relationship, the less you are likely to offend .