Welp MagazineA concentrated marketing strategy is targeted to one specific market segment or audience. For example, a company might market a product specifically for teenage girls, or a retailer might market his business to residents in a specific town.
What is a Concentrated Marketing Strategy?
Concentrated marketing focuses on a specific sector of the population to help the company increase sales. The company may focus its efforts by advertising in only one or two media outlets all the time or by reaching out to a specific segment of the population. The goal of concentrated marketing is to increase sales within a specific market segment.
Possible Reasons for Using a Concentrated Marketing Strategy
Beginners may find concentrated marketing easier to use. This strategy helps a company reach its target market quickly without having to build a huge customer base. It takes away the guesswork of selecting the right audience and allows the company to focus its efforts in one way.
Concentrated marketing also works well with smaller companies that do not have an extensive marketing budget. They may find it easier to pinpoint a group of appropriate people to market to rather than spreading themselves thin to a large group of consumers.
How to Develop a Concentrated Marketing Strategy
Before launching a concentrated marketing strategy, a company should identify its target market. It should know its customers, their wants and needs, and how they think. This can be accomplished by getting in contact with that audience by means of an interview or surveys or even in person if possible.
The company should learn as much as possible about the audience being targeted. This will help the company determine the right appeal to use to reach them. For example, a company needs to know the appropriate place for advertising, whether it’s on television or on the internet, and whether it needs to use print media or radio commercials. It should also choose the correct target audiences in order to receive the best response. This will avoid reaching the wrong type of people in its advertisements. A concentrated marketing strategy should focus only on the best possible segment of the population.
· It should also consider the company’s strengths and weaknesses. If it does not have a large marketing budget, concentrated marketing will be an effective option for filling the budget since the company will be much more efficient with its use of resources.
· A business should only be using concentrated marketing if it knows what the most likely customer will do. Knowing its customer’s buying behaviors is one of the keys to concentrated marketing.
· If a company needs to spend less money marketing, concentrated marketing should be used. This would be for companies that have a small marketing budget and cannot compete against huge companies in the same industry. However, this strategy has the drawback of having a bigger risk. If the targeted sector of the population doesn’t fit the business, the business will go bankrupt.
· If a company is a big business, concentrated marketing is not a good choice. For example, an iPhone company would have to appeal to the entire world. If they use concentrated marketing, their sales will be low because they will be marketing to the wrong people.
· Since concentrated marketing is only focusing on a specific audience, it is very important to know the interests of that audience. If a company is targeting a new teenager audience and focuses on that interested teenager, they are more likely to be successful than if they tried to appeal to all teenagers in the country.
Pros of Concentrated Marketing Strategy
· Using concentrated marketing is a good way to focus a company’s efforts and create sales in a short period of time. This strategy may also be good for companies looking to build a customer base or those with fewer resources available for marketing.
· By reaching out to the correct audience with appealing messages, businesses can find the best base of customers to help them to succeed.
· This strategy works well for small businesses with a small marketing budget. Concentrating the marketing budget can help a small business gain sales faster since they will not have to spend the money to reach all customers but will only need to work to reach a specific target market.
· Adopting a concentrated marketing strategy will also make a company more efficient by helping to eliminate certain areas where the company may not succeed. For example, using a concentrated strategy effectively will help a company realize that television is not the best platform through which to market its services.
· A company that is using concentrated marketing also will likely need fewer employees to reach its targeted audience. However, it is important to keep in mind that eliminating huge areas of marketing will not be effective since there will not be enough advertising to reach the specific segment.
Cons of Concentrated Marketing Strategy
· A concentrated campaign is only useful if it reaches its target audience. Otherwise, it is not a good idea. For example, if a real estate company is planning to market luxury homes, the advertisements need to be directed towards the appropriate people. Otherwise, the effort will fail to make an impact.
· This strategy is particularly risky for small businesses. Companies should consider all the factors before deciding to use a concentrated marketing strategy.
Summary – Complete Guide to Concentrated Marketing Strategy
A concentrated marketing strategy is used by a company creating a marketing plan. This is where the company chooses to focus its efforts on a specific market segment or audience. With this technique, the company is more efficient in creating sales. A concentrated marketing strategy may be used in many different types of businesses.
For example, a company may use a concentrated marketing strategy to sell a new product to a specific segment of the population. Or a company may decide to use this strategy to reach a specific audience or market, such as teenagers or people in a specific town.
Businesses that choose to use concentrated marketing will find that they are not reaching the whole world but instead those who are likely to be the best customers for their product or service and the best payers.
Developing a concentrated marketing strategy is not an easy task. A company must learn about the audience to which they are selling, as well as their most likely buying habits and behaviors, by means of surveys or market research. The company also needs to be sure it has the right appeal to make their product or service need to the targeted audience.
When a concentrated marketing campaign is designed well, the company will usually be successful. However, businesses should never spend their money in areas that aren’t likely to bring in any revenue.
Overall, concentrated marketing can be effective for almost any type of small business. However, larger companies will need to focus on marketing to the entire country or world and can not use this strategy.
How to Apply Concentrated Marketing Strategy?
The concentrated marketing plays an important role in any marketing campaign. Business owners can use this strategy to make their business more efficient. Here are several tips that will help you use this marketing strategy successfully:
Target a specific audience:
When a company uses concentrated marketing, it has to determine the segment of the population it wants to reach. It is important to create a “search engine” for marketing, for the company to discover the interests and needs of targeted customers.
This can be done by using research or surveys, among other tools, to find the most attractive market segment in which to invest marketing. With this research you can see what the target audience is looking for and create a plan of action.
Incentives:
The company will also have to know how to offer the best incentives for customers to make a purchase. If not, the customers may not buy the product or service, and the company’s investment in the concentrated marketing campaign will be a waste.
Some business owners think that just putting advertising in the streets and the media is all it takes to reach its targeted audience. But this is not true, customers need incentives. Depending on the product or service, incentives may not be monetary.
For example, a company that sells a product can offer free shipping or even a gift if someone orders from them. If a company does not offer any rewards for customers, their campaign will fail and they will not make money.
Market to the right customers:
Finally, it is important to find the right audience and to avoid wasting time targeting those who are less likely to buy the product or service. An iPod company should not advertise on a radio station that only has young people in their audience.
It is important to know the buyer well to advertise in the best places to reach them. If the company does not do this, they will waste a lot of money in areas that are not likely to be profitable.
Examples of Concentrated Marketing Campaigns
In order to have a clearer picture of the benefits of using the concentrated marketing strategy, we bring you several examples of companies that have used this strategy successfully and effectively.
McDonald’s:
A few years ago, McDonald’s realized that if they wanted to reach new customers they had to change their strategy since it relied on families with children and teenagers. So, McDonald’s decided to concentrate its marketing on children and teenagers up to 20 years old.
They were successful with this approach and this strategy helped them keep the market share they had. In addition, it allowed them to maintain the sales and improve their profit.
Youtube:
Google’s video sharing website, Youtube, has used a concentrated marketing campaign to reach its target audience. They decided to select its main audience as young adults, aged 18 to 24.
Within this segment of their audience, they concentrated their advertising on gaming tools and socializing. They did this by utilizing the Internet. They created a network of websites that would attract their target audience. This campaign was so successful that they earned seven billion dollars in 2012.
Red Cross:
The Red Cross decided to diversify their market and used concentrated marketing to create a new and specific segment for their company.
The Red Cross kept in mind that it should not eliminate its audience over the age of 60, since that audience had been supporting the organization for many years.
Therefore, their new targeted demographic was children and teens – boys and girls – who were between seven and 17 years old. This group would have as a common factor a relative or a friend of a member of the Red Cross.
By concentrating their marketing efforts in this target audience, Red Cross has had a significant increase in revenue in the last few years, since the organization can count on financial aid for years to come.
It is clear that the concentrated marketing works not only for companies with large budgets but also small and medium businesses. However, to achieve good results, it is mandatory to follow certain guidelines:
- Know your market segment
- Make a plan including concrete objectives
- Determine the advertising resources you have available
- Use the Internet to get information about your target audience
- Choose the best advertising medium for your company
- Measure the return on your investment
- If you notice that your profits are not what you expected, change your strategy
- A company that uses concentrated marketing can increase its sales without increasing its expenses. This is a great way to improve your business without hurting your finances.
