🎯 Targeted Marketing for Rapid Growth

One of the most popular marketing strategies among active market players is the target marketing strategy. The target marketing strategy is a marketing strategy in which the market is viewed as a heterogeneous object consisting of elements. In marketing language, these elements are called market segments. In other words, with such a strategy, the market is broken down into molecules and work is carried out with them, and each molecule is worked with separately.

Separate work involves a separate marketing program for each separate market segment, studying the needs of different target groups, reading articles on marketing, creating a special offer for each target segment, using different advertising messages for the target audience of each segment. How does all this happen in real life? Let's look at the example of Mazda.

Mazda is a car manufacturer. Most people know it as a manufacturer of budget cars that are considered to be of high quality. Mazda cars have a good enough reputation to be sold in different market segments. To do this, the company uses a target marketing strategy. As a result of this strategy, sales of this company reach 1.3 million cars per year.

However, despite the relatively large sales volumes, the company is not profitable. The company has been making losses for many years. Mazda would not be Mazda if it did not try to improve the situation. Having realized that it would not be able to earn more in the segments where it already operates, Mazda attempted to create a market for itself, a market in which it would be a monopolist, its own personal market. In such a market, due to the monopoly position, it is understandable that you can make good money.

What market to create? What market to create? After the analysis, it became clear that consumers are willing to pay quite a lot for self-affirmation, for the opportunity to do this. There are many opportunities for self-affirmation and one of them is self-affirmation on the road, because in principle there are quite a lot of competitors, which means that the pleasure in case of achieving a result will be very great.

To operate in such a market, you need the appropriate cars – sports cars. In the context of car sales, the market for which sports cars are offered is one of the most profitable markets. Like any other market, the sports car market is built on a specific idea. In this case, this idea can be identified as “self-affirmation on the road.”

In other words, sports car consumers are people who have been inculcated with the idea of ​​”self-affirmation on the road.” This idea activates future consumers, creates motivational energy in them, which leads to them eventually becoming sports car buyers.

It is obvious that, compared to the general market for ordinary cars, the market for sports cars, i.e. the market for means of self-affirmation on the road, is absolutely unique because it is built on the basis of a unique idea. The market based on the idea of ​​”self-affirmation on the road” has existed for a long time, probably since the time when the first roads appeared, and there are a large number of players on it.

Accordingly, it is not so easy to enter it. More precisely, it is possible to enter, but it is not a fact that it will be consolidated, because consumers have long formed established associations with specific manufacturers. Therefore, from a marketing point of view, it is logical not to enter such a market directly, but to create a separate segment and become a monopolist on it. This can only be done if there is a target marketing strategy.

Target Marketing Strategy as a Sales Generator

Such a strategy requires a separate idea, because it is the idea that underlies any marketing strategy. Accordingly, the main thing here is to choose the right idea and introduce it into the minds of buyers. Mazda did this. It generated an idea, or rather, not one, but two ideas. One of them is “budget self-affirmation on the road,” and the second is “entry level self-affirmation on the road.” After which the idea began to be introduced into consumers.

The creation of an idea is not the end of the matter. The idea still needs to be spread, sown among potential buyers. Moreover, it is desirable to spread the idea so that it is sufficiently firmly entrenched in the consumer’s consciousness. One of the options for this is to organize an infrastructure for self-affirmation. This is what Mazda did by organizing a Zoom tournament in 2008 – the Zoom Challenge for amateurs.

After 3 years, the number of carriers of the above ideas, and therefore the number of potential participants reached 15,000 people. This is a very good figure. Through this tournament, the above ideas began to be implemented in people and turn them into consumers of the corresponding Mazda cars. At the same time, sales of these cars went up, because the main condition for participation is the fact of having a Mazda car.

The fact that the tournament is held regularly means that the idea remains constantly active, which means that sales also remain active. At the same time, as in any other tournament, this tournament has a reward. The participant who has achieved the greatest success on a local scale gets to the most important place for the implementation of the idea implemented in him. Such a place is the Spa-Francorchamps track in Belgium, where people with the strongest desire to assert themselves on the road gather.

Target Marketing Strategy is an Effective Tool… So, Mazda applied a classic target marketing strategy: a separate marketing program, a separate market segment, a separate product, a separate communications system. This is what allowed it to ultimately achieve success and develop it. Mazda decided to compete not only in a common market for everyone, but also to create a market for itself. It decided to have its own market, where it would have no competitors.

She succeeded, she now has at least 15,000 of her own consumers, over whom she has a monopoly. The monopoly position allows her to dictate her terms. She can set any price for the cars, in principle, and they will sell. So in this market Mazda will be able to make good money in order to cover the losses that she makes in other markets.

It is becoming obvious that the target marketing strategy is an effective tool. Companies that use it receive serious competitive advantages. This strategy is boldly striding across the planet and conquering new and new frontiers. The speed with which this strategy is spreading allows us to say that companies that work on other strategies or without them at all will not live long.

We are talking about a period of time lasting 5-10 years, no more. All companies that will not be able to restructure themselves during this time to use this strategy will be on the verge of elimination. Of course, due to inertia, they may not be eliminated immediately, but their positions in the market will significantly worsen and will continue to worsen. The end result for all those who lag behind will be the same – bankruptcy. In order to avoid bankruptcy, you need high-quality market analytics and your own marketing strategy.