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Are mass markets dead or merely sleeping?
Contemporary Issues in Marketing Communications
MA Marketing Communications
Sayaka Brand
W14146916
Module Leader:
Jon Pike
Word Count:

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Introduction: Evolution of Markets
“The governing ideal was not merely to keep up with the Joneses, but to be the
Joneses” (Bianco et al, 2004). In the mid- 20th
century, it was Western society’s aim
to fit in seamlessly, to own the same cars and home appliances as the next-door
neighbors, “the Joneses”.
The historical progress humankind has witnessed since the beginning of time has
gradually been accompanied by marketing activities. The epoch of simple trade has
governed for thousands of years before being broken through by the industrialization.
Exploiting the newly found technological procedures allowed for goods to be mass-
produced and consumed (White 2010). The aim of mass production was to
effectively lower production cost as well as make use of economies of scale. Its
pioneer, Henry Ford, perfected mass production to the extent to which the famous
Model T was leaving the line every 10 seconds- enabling Ford to cut costs and
prices, double the minimum daily wage at the same time yet still be profitable (Ford,
2014). However, the example outlined refers to an era where society was
significantly more homogenous and uniform; not only in terms of ethnicities but also
regarding aspirations (Bianco et al 2004).
However, as incomes grew and affluence levels elevated, societies’ encounter with
capitalism and postmodernism provoked a major shift in consumer demand and
culture (Dirlik and Zhang, 2000; Bianco et al, 2004)
A little like the infamous chicken or egg question, it cannot be pinpointed which led to
the other- if the demands in society urged producers to keep up with the changes, or
if demands were “artificially” created to increase consumption. Nonetheless, it can be
said that the shift from mass to micro marketing has been equally driven by necessity
as well as opportunity (Bianco et al, 2004).
Media Proliferation and Audience Fragmentation
Being a millennial makes me a part of a particularly unique generation as we
experienced life pre-Internet, and since its implementation, organically grew
alongside. Web 2.0 has fundamentally transformed life, providing a platform of
infinite opportunities that allow exploration on a level previously unheard of. The
present fast-paced, hyper-connected environment develops a thirst for constant
innovation and a consequent death of a long attention span. This had us going from
packed Facebook photo albums and YouTube videos to 3-second Snapchat pictures
and 6-second Vine videos. Moreover, the proliferation of media has not only created
an abundance of innovative new non-traditional tools such as the latter, but also

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fragmented the traditional media sector profoundly. The accelerating media
fragmentation is shrinking media audiences, the increasing numbers of channels and
media are making it more challenging for marketers to reach their target audience
through traditional media (Kirby and Marsden 2006). What used to be network
television with a few channels that reached out to a fairly uniform audience has
evolved to cable television and satellite radio, providing new advertising options.
What sounds promising, however, has actually led to increasing media clutter and
fragmentation; hence making advertising and targeting less effective (O'Guinn, Allen
and Semenik, 2012). Consequently, advertising giants, such as McDonalds, have
reduced their budget allocation for TV adverts from what used to be 75% to a third
(Doorley and Garcia, 2007).
Advertising today, even when promoting mass-products, is highly targeted. One
might think that trivial products such as detergent are mundane, one-size-fits-all
products. According to P&G, this could not be further away from the truth.
Companies have shifted emphasis from selling to the immense anonymous mass to
selling to millions of particular customers (Bianco et al 2004).
On the one hand, audience and media fragmentation aids the targeted marketing by
providing various channels that reach a specific consumer. On the other, it reduces
its effectiveness if the chosen channel fails to capture the desired consumer.
This is precisely why the integrated marketing approach has emerged as a concept;
instead of suffocating under media fragmentation, it uses the dispersion to its
advantage. To enhance the primary advertising message and to reach out to their
desired specific consumers, marketers use tools such as promotions, sponsorships
and public relations in addition (O'Guinn, Allen and Semenik, 2012).
Therefore, integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaigns cater to the needs
of today’s fragmented audience and media, and do not attempt to re-create mass
markets. It is critiqued that IMC uses mass marketing channels and sends a unified
message across all traditional and non-traditional media. Further, it is said to face
strong barriers, such as restriction in creativity and unaccommodating organizational
structures, which encumber success (De Pelsmacker, Geuens and Bergh, 2010).
However, the combination of the efforts of each medium has a greater impact all
together than a message wandering through a single channel. Moreover, IMC is
essentially used to allow one medium's weakness to be counterbalanced by
another’s strength, synergized components to support each other and create grander
effect (Kitchen et all 2004). Contrary to common belief, a successful IMC strategy
does not signify that an organization should only with a single message and one
unifying brand. More realistically, an integrated method encourages marketers to

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implement a strategy with multiple targets and allows them to attain integration of
different communication messages, functions and brand within one organization.
Consequently, IMC has the potential to profoundly transform the meaning of
marketing communications and might even be the succeeding step in the evolution of
marketing. (Dewhirst and Davis, 2005, Kilatchko, 2005, Grove, Carlson and Dorsch,
2002, Lee, 2002, Phelps and Johnson 1996) A perfect example for this would be
Snicker’s integrated campaign “ You are not you when you’re hungry”. The
campaign played on the consumer’s emotion of irritability and moodiness in times of
hunger. With such a common phenomenon that everyone could relate to, it was possible
to create a multidimensional campaign. Snickers got celebrities to send tweets that were
completely out of character, such as Katie Price tweeting about the outlook on the
Chinese economy (Benady 2012). When the underlying campaign was revealed, it
received great feedback not only due to its humour but clever guerilla tactics. This
campaign therefore exemplifies how it was able to integrate all marketing tools into one
campaign, leveraging each one for its strength and viral capacities. The core message
stays the same in each medium (“you are not you when you’re hungry”), however, TV
and YouTube ads showed a proper TV spot, whereas Twitter was used for celebrities
drawing attention and interest, and Facebook to post campaign-related “posters” with
humorous examples of how people are not themselves when they are hungry. By
approaching the consumers through the channel that speaks to them the most allows
firms to appeal to their individual needs, which a mass-market approach could not.
This campaign proves that integration is not about saying the same thing in different
channels. It illustrates that it is about attaching powerful and engaging consumer
insight to a unique feature of the brand and make it come alive through its
appropriate channels, whether its TV ads, Social Media or a piece of merchandise
(Benady
2012).

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Consumer Empowerment
The opinion of rejecting the recreation of mass markets through IMC can be further
underlined with the factor of consumer empowerment. Kliatchko (2008) argues that
IMC must be audience driven to be effective. “Companies must recognize that they
increasingly have to engage gods and are not dealing with helpless consumers
anymore”, says Rishad Tobaccowala, an executive vice president of Media Vest
Group, in an interview with Bianco et all (2004). Through the proliferation of non-
traditional media and revolution in patterns how media is consumed means that
consumers can determine the channel and content they want to be exposed to and
the duration thereof.
Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, in an interview with the Economist
(2005): “For the first time the consumer is boss, which is fascinatingly scary and
terrifying, because everything we used to do, everything we used to know, will no
longer work.” Kirby and Marsden (2006) explain that the result of the abundance of
information, non-traditional media and the Internet as a whole is the marketing-savvy
and skeptical consumer, which portrays the main challenge in today’s marketing.
Therefore, it is no secret that social media has profoundly revolutionized the
principles of marketing in a traditional context. With 3.4 billion interactions on
Facebook and half a billion tweets being sent out daily, marketers are always on the
outlook for new ways to use those profitably (Mullin 2013). As previously mentioned,
we can witness a simultaneous shift in consumer behavior to being distrustful
towards corporate advertising, making the oldest advertising tool, word of mouth, the
strongest influencer of our time (Figure 1, Mashable 2013).

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Figure 1: Courtesy of Mashable.com (2013)
Mullin (2013) therefore postulates that social media has become the modern form of
word-of-mouth marketing. It is in our nature to reduce risk pre-purchase by obtaining
information and opinions to facilitate decision-making when evaluating alternatives
(Solomon 2010). Whilst traditional word of mouth reached consumers individually
through their inner circles, Web 2.0 and the social platforms it provides allows one
person to directly reach out an unlimited number people at once. This has
tremendously magnified this type of consumer-to-consumer communication.
The efficacy of non-traditional media lies in the insertion of the “listening”-element;
what used to be corporations preaching to the public can now be responded to
through these platforms, creating two-way communications.
Companies are faced with the intimidating circumstances of giving up partial control
of the corporate message. IN exchange however, companies can gain valuable
market insight and respond efficiently (Safko, 2012). Hence, the shift of who is sitting
in the throne can and should not be changed. Today, with all ad-blocking and

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skipping technology, online reviews and platform where we can exchange our ratings
and experiences for products with complete strangers, have left companies with no
choice but to work on their transparency and focus on “earning earned media”.
A campaign that has provided consumers with valuable and truly engaging content
was Coca Cola in the summer of 2013. “Our summer campaign invited you to share a
moment of happiness with friends, family and loved ones. We swapped the iconic logo on
our bottles with 250 of the most popular names in Great Britain, so you could Share a
Coke with the people who matter to you the most (Coca-Cola GB, 2014)” With more
than 1.8billion servings in over 200 countries, Coca Cola is a prime example of a
mass product. However, through their integrated campaign strategy, they were able
to appeal individually to each of their consumer by personalizing the bottle to a level
of relevancy. Not only did Coca Cola print names on bottles, but also embedded it
into a whole experiential marketing event, by letting the names appear on the digital
billboards at Piccadilly Circus. Moreover, this campaign received massive
engagement levels on social media through all the people sharing their experience
and pictures of bottles. Ultimately, Coca Cola jumpstarted its campaign by giving out
the personalized merchandise, but the real success was driven by the consumers,
who shared their genuine appreciation for the campaign by creating earned media
and propelled it to the level of tremendous success and increased likability. The
Coca-Cola example demonstrates that, even if the merchandise itself is a not a
unique niche product but in fact mass-produced, a mass marketing strategy would
fail to impress the consumer with a standardized mass media advertising.

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Other similar examples are the recent campaigns of ABSOLUT Vodka, Absolut
Unique and Absolut Originality. In both campaigns, the company completely
rearranged their production process to create 4 million uniquely designed bottles.
Absolut Originality infused the transparent bottle with a single drop of blue colour to
grant each bottle with a completely unique design. The bottles were advertised on
billboards but consumers were able to engage by the “add your own drop” on their
website and social media to personally customize their bottle (Absolut Vodka 2014).
Conclusion
Companies cannot stay competitive in the market if they do not adopt an integrated
marketing approach that caters to individual segments. Mass marketing can in very
few cases still be an effective tool, that is, when the target market is homogenous,
such as in the commodity industry. However, any company that needs to expand and
capture new segments has no choice but to abandon a mass marketing strategy or
to cost-intensively invent a new product for every new segment (Ferrell, O.C.; Hartline,
M.; 2012). I do believe that personalized, targeted advertising is here to stay, due to
all the reasons mentioned, as it is simply more effective, measurable, allows for
interaction with the consumer and strengthens relationship marketing. Hence, there
will be no relapse to mass advertising in the foreseeable future. However, that IMC is
not aiming to recreate mass-markets does not mean that mass markets are dead.
Mass marketing is. The thirst for new trends is always partly fuelled by society, and
not only marketing. The chronology that is associated with the postmodern era

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emphasizes the mistrust towards the future and enjoys nostalgic consumption. This
is particularly visible in the fashion industry, where we can often see a comeback of
the past, where elements of the e.g. 60’, 70’, 20’ are embedded in the new
collections. Since we have gone from conformity to individuality throughout
postmodernism, it is unclear what post-postmodernism holds for society. Will society
be saturated with individuality? An example of a subtle indication of the latter is the
latest fashion trend “Normcore”. This describes bland, unfashionable notion of
dressing in an utterly conventional, nondescript way, where sameness accentuates
the desire to fit in (Farell 2014; Doonan 2014; Cochrane 2014). Therefore, there is a
certain likelihood of society wanting to remove all the clutter and go back to a more
functional rather than hyper-reality driven environment. Given this probability, it can
be concluded that mass-markets are likely to be merely sleeping and could be
revived one day- either through necessity or opportunity.

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