Steve Yastrow

Turning Customer Segmentation On Its Head

For years, marketers have used customer segmentation as a tool to make their jobs easier.   By “lumping” large groups of customers together, based on what those customers have in common, marketers can send mass messages to those groups of customers, and make use of broad media outlets.

The problem:  This is convenient for marketers, but it doesn’t do much for customers.  While marketers are focusing on what makes one customer like many other customers, each customer is focused on what makes her different from everyone else.

This out-moded view of customer segmentation was valuable in an advertising-based world, because advertisers could look for media habits that customers in these segments shared.  Problem #2: We don’t live in an advertising-based marketplace anymore, and media habits are not a very good proxy for purchase intent.

If you want to connect with your customers, and create strong, sustainable relationships with them, it’s time to turn the traditional model of customer segmentation on its head.  It’s time to focus on what makes customers unique, not what makes them interchangeable.

Is this easy? No. Is it necessary?  Yes. Why?  Because this is the way your customers see themselves.

Posted in Brute Force Branding, Marketing | 3 Comments »

Your un-media plan

“Marketing media.” Did you ever stop and think about what that means? “Media” = “In the middle.”

Every good little ad agency always makes sure that a media plan accompanies each recommendation they present to a client. It is assumed that all marketing communications must have some media in the middle, bridging the way between buyer and seller.

Why?

There’s no good reason. In fact, the most effective marketing doesn’t have mediation. It is when the buyer and seller are in direct contact, sans media.

Certainly, there are times when media are necessary. If you have a lot of customers, you may not be able to talk with them all directly. If you want to reach people you don’t know, you may need to delegate customer communication to some magazine or billboard. But, here’s my question: What do you build first into your plan – rich, personal, unmediated encounters, or mass, impersonal, mediated transactions?

Instead of building your media plan first, try this: Build your un-media plan. Start conceiving of your marketing by focusing on interacting directly with your customers. And then, use relatively-inefficient, less-productive marketing media for what’s left over.

Posted in Customer Encounters, Marketing | 4 Comments »