Identifying Differences vs. Identifying Similarities among Consumers

As marketing students/teachers/practitioners, we know the mantra of “Segmentation-Targeting-Positioning” for developing marketing strategies as well as we know our ABC’s for reading and writing. In order to segment a market, we are really looking for segments or groups of consumers who are different from others. Now, the question is: how far do we take these differences – I am sure we can find individual quirkiness – quirkiness so individual, that the marketer must address consumers one at a time. Taking this kind of thinking further makes concepts such as Mass Customization very appealing. At the end of the day, a large scale manufacturer attempts to provide customization for every individual by just making superficial changes on the same basic product – like color of a car and some design on newest model of motorbikes. Really, it’s just sprinkles vs. chocolate chip topping on plain vanilla ice-cream!!

The whole point of industrial large scale production and efficient marketing to a large number of consumer’s is lost. This stream of argument is not to say that all markets must be treated as one huge homogenous market and that targeting and positioning make no sense! No, that’s not it at all!! The point is: do we really have differentiated products that are required by different sets of consumers owing to the fact that the product is REALLY different? Or else, why not just focus on the entire group of consumers.

Yes, the problem then would be: How do we sell it to them? How do we “position” it if we don’t view them as different? Look at similarities. Why do marketers find it so hard to look for similarities? Similarities can include customers, making the market bigger. Differences only serve to exclude consumers. One great example of how we can do this is by looking at Rituals.

Apparently, BBDO worldwide has done a study on consumer rituals. They define rituals as a series of actions that transform people from one emotional state to another and are developed over a period of time. According to them, Rituals make people feel good. They believe that brands that are embedded in consumer’s daily rituals have a better chance of “stickiness” and make them “Fortress Brands”. Their study done across 26 countries with feedback from more than 5000 people has provided them some rituals that people follow across the world: ‘Preparing for Battle’, ‘Feasting’, ‘Sexing Up’, ‘Returning to camp’ and ‘Protecting yourself for future’. Each of these stages has sequence of steps. According to them, rituals are followed by everyone, its execution may differ.

Sometimes looking for differences doesn’t work, especially in an over-segmented market. Maybe, its time to consolidate and look for similarities! Here’s another clip from my favorite stand-up, George Carlin, who speaks of how we are more alike than different.