Forget mass marketing, advises Expo keynote J. Brad Davis. The key to success is marketing to “an audience of one.”
“You reach out to the masses by appealing to the individual, through like-minded communities,” said Davis, who took Expo attendees on a “global tour of retailing” to show a wide range of ways that marketers are connecting with individual consumers.
Technology, especially cell phones and PDAs, has accelerated consumers’ expectations to be treated as an audience of one. Marketers can harness that as media to reach like-minded communities—which revolve around psychographics, not demographics.
Davis, formerly CMO for Washington Mutual, recounted the bank’s use of psychographic research a few years ago. “We gave people pictures, and asked them to choose photos that reminded them of banks, bankers, and their own banking experiences.” Their choices: a rabid dog; two stodgy men; and a blindfolded crowd.
“They told us, ‘Banks are predatory, they just nickel and dime you with fees,’ so we listened, and eliminated fees,” Davis said. WaMu put its staff in casual clothing and khakis, and redesigned branches with friendlier spaces, including kids’ play areas.
Davis also advised marketers to create an experience for consumers, using all five senses, and to market to four key audiences: co-workers, capital markets, customers and communities. “If you understand your community well enough, you can discover your own brand’s DNA,” he said, and challenged the crowd: “Do you know your own community well enough that you’d feel comfortable taking your name off your store and your product, and be confident that people would still find you?”
