Micromarket Strategy is the need of the hour

Economies have tightened, uncertain and contracted. Sales volumes have plateaued because of encroaching competitors and shifting demand. Companies seem to have lost direction and appear helpless.

In these times of slowdown, selling to micro markets is an idea that works. The company does not spread its resources over a large area but concentrates on identified groups that are doing well relative to others. Micromarketing is an approach that tends to target a specific group of people in a niche market. With micro marketing, products or services are marketed and sold directly to a targeted group of customers.

To make use of micro marketing, a company has to narrowly define an audience by a particular characteristic, such as gender or job title or age range or geography, even zip codes and then tailor campaigns geared toward that specific group. Micromarketing can be effectively used by companies to increase their sales exponentially, increase customer base, brand awareness, and ultimately profits.

Micromarketing can be done through various ways. A company can offer promotional schemes specifically to its loyal customer base. This has been effectively used by the automobile sector by offering a loyalty bonus on the purchase of a second new car. Companies also tailor products for consumers with unique needs; marketing goods and services to residents in a particular town or region, or offering products to targeted consumers with specific job titles or career designations.

Traditionally, sales coverage was defined by large regions and territories. Sales resources were allocated according to a region’s historical performance. In micro market strategy, sales coverage is segmented into dozens or hundreds of micro markets. Resources are deployed at the micro market level according to expected future opportunity.

In the past, sales would collect customer data from internal sources like CRM, billing, customer-service database, etc.; whereas in recent times, data is extracted from multiple internal and external sources like customers, channel partners, suppliers, web searches, social media, location data and external data such as weather and demographic information. The data is now far greater than ever before. It is used to show what customers are talking about in social media and what they are buying.

This data is used to find out under exploited and over-served area. It is also used to find which areas are unlikely to grow and find new pockets of growth. It becomes critical for re-deployment of sales force to enhance coverage and opportunity thus helping the sales team to achieve sales target easily. This huge data received from micro-market study serves as the basis for formulating and executing sales strategies and take maximum benefit of the growth opportunities.

Types of Micro-marketing:

Local: A company may use local micro marketing in order to market to people in a particular neighborhood or city. A good example is – in the real estate industry. The realtor will consider the specific needs and demands of the clients of a particular demographic area.
Relationships: Companies market their products or services to the people they know.
Job Title: Companies target a specific job title and do marketing based on their particular needs.
Industry: Products or services are sold in a particular sector. For example, a sanitary ware company may offer “Green Products” specifically for architects who only use “green Products” in their projects.
Brand Loyalty: Companies target loyal customers of a particular brand with exclusive offers.
Customer Recovery: Companies often attempt to win back unhappy or lost customers with specific offers.

Examples of companies that have run successful micro marketing campaigns and have achieved significant growth include Proctor & Gamble (P&G), Uber and Red Bull.

Proctor & Gamble launched its hair care product particularly for African-American women in the US with Pantene Relaxed and Natural. Uber cleverly used social media platforms and promoting local events such as Icecream day to its target audience. The company managed to understand the specific issues of transportation in the cities it planned to expand. The result of this was an increase in the client’s base of the company through referral benefits and promotions. Red Bull sponsored extreme sports events to enhance brand visibility.