Micromarketing

A strategy that aims to reach out to a targeted group of customers in a niche market.

What is Micromarketing?

Micromarketing is a marketing strategy that is used over a targeted group of customers in a niche market. It is typically used to advertise a product or service with a narrow customer base. The customer base is chosen by the marketer based on certain characteristics, such as age, gender, job title, location, etc.

For example, Uber uses a location-based micromarketing strategy in each city it is expanding into. When Uber entered the Vancouver market recently, it used the rainy weather of the city to incentivize people to use the ride-hailing app instead of walking on the busy streets with umbrellas.

Summary

• Micromarketing is a strategy that aims to reach out to a targeted group of customers in a niche market. It differs from micromarketing, which targets a large network of customers.

• The advantages of micromarketing include its highly targeted nature, its tendency to save costs for a company, and its capability of increasing a company’s sales through user-generated growth.

• The disadvantages of micromarketing include its time-consuming nature, high cost of customer acquisition, and the possibility of targeting the wrong customer audience.

Micromarketing vs. Macromarketing

Target Market

The primary difference between micromarketing and macromarketing is that the former focuses on a targeted small group of people, while the latter focuses on a broad group of customers.

For example, if a marketer is adopting a micromarketing strategy based on job title, he would consider people in a particular profession like financial analysts or doctors. On the other hand, a macromarketing strategy would involve targeting people in any profession.

Customer Network and Relationships

The difference between both strategies also comes in terms of building a network of customers and relationships with the customers in the network. For example, micromarketing aims to develop robust relationships with customers. Brand loyalty is a high priority when using this strategy, as the targeted group of customers is a niche.

On the other hand, macromarketing tends to build a large network of customers. The goal is to market the product to as many people as possible. Thus, distribution is the main focus in macromarketing compared to micromarketing, which focuses on maximizing value for customers.

Advantages of Micromarketing

• Micromarketing is highly targeted, as it tends to target a specific segment of the population.

• Micromarketing helps in saving costs, as it narrows down the population you target. Small micro-budgets are assigned for this type of marketing, and overall, it reduces the marketing expenses for a company.

• Micromarketing provides user-generated growth. It means that if the first users like your product or service, they are likely to spread the word to their friends and family. It offers the potential of boosting a company’s sales.

Disadvantages of Micromarketing

• Micromarketing is time-consuming, as it requires the marketer to carefully select the segment of the population it wants to target. It requires a large amount of research and resources. Additionally, the marketer must spend time on developing the campaign.

• Micromarketing requires a higher cost of customer acquisition because the target segment comprises fewer people. The average cost of acquiring a new customer may increase.

• Micromarketing may not target the right audience, and there’s a possibility of resources and time being wasted on the wrong segment of the population.

Practical Example

A company that successfully implemented a micromarketing strategy is Red Bull. The company chose youth participating in extreme sports as their target group and built a successful marketing strategy around it.

The energy drink manufacturer started sponsoring extreme sports events, such as cliff diving in Hawaii and skateboarding in San Francisco. It created excitement among the youth, who were attracted to the energy drink. Other extreme sporting events that Red Bull sponsors are rock climbing, windsurfing, and Formula One racing.