Developing a marketing strategy as opposed to a budget allocation

Editors note: this is part 2 of a 2 part series on Lessons small and medium sized business can learn about Total Market marketing planning and decision making. 

In part 1 of this series entitled Lessons in Small Business Marketing I explored understanding what a total market marketing strategy means and how to determine the target market segments in your total market strategy. In part 2 I explore the process by which Total Market strategies should be developed.

In the previous article I talked about how a total market strategy involves understanding and segmenting the components or segments of your total market. A total market strategy is not a one size fits all strategy that touches on a little from every segment instead it is a multi-faceted approach that recognizes, targets and incorporates different segments of the total market into your marketing approach.

Once you have identified your market segments your marketing strategy begins to take shape. This is where a “total market” approach differs from a mere budget allocation and why “total market” is really the realm of the advertiser and not of the ad agency.

Phase 1. Identify and Develop You Product.

Ideally, you would develop specific ethnic flavors in addition to the traditional gelatin flavors. For example (and I’m making this up):

• Traditional Flavors: Strawberry, Lemon/Lime, Peach, Pineapple
• Hispanic: Tamarind, Coconut, Coffee, Papaya
• Black/AA: Grape, Peach
• Asian: Ginger, Green Tea

As I said, I’m making it up, but a “total market” approach would definitely include the development of some highly specific flavors which not only appeal to each ethnic group but that, more importantly, can be used as the “halo” flavor(s) for each group. Something that will get noticed.

Phase 2. Select and Analyze Your Media

There are two levels of media we need to consider:

The first and most obvious level is mass media: television and cable, which cover a huge amount of people but with messaging that is hard to really segment and, thus, needs to have a broader appeal.

There is a huge amount of research that proves that television not only is not dead, but the hours spent on it have not gone down. The medium has just shifted skin and now, instead of only coming through one screen comes through two: Hulu, Netflix… they are television too.

So, as an advertiser, I would favor a more generic message, perhaps with the news (gelatin AND cake from a single powder) perhaps with the most generic flavors (strawberry, lime/lemon) and certainly a family environment.

However, given that digital is very much a part of our daily life, one can then develop much more customized creative and segmented media to appeal to different groups.

This could be a model:

Considering the availability of specialized stores, it is feasible that even the Asian market, which would not be getting any “regular” media could get some in-store promos and coupons.

Naturally, these segmented media would have ad-hoc messaging to leverage each group’s very specific strengths.

And each group would get a different mix of vehicles and media weights corresponding to their budget.