Rising Revenues: Diversity in Marketing and CRM. Web-Cast, The Conference Board
Money is made through the market – with individual consumers or with corporate clients. In both cases, acknowledging the diversity of customers is critical to making the most of existing and future market potential. Participants of the WebCast “Rising Revenues: Diversity in Marketing and CRM” by Michael Stuber, which was organised by the Conference Board, learned a lot about leveraging untapped market potential through D&I. The WebCast was held on April 28th 2009.
Diversity as the Propelling Potential Principle addresses different target groups with one approach. This systemic approach enables a valuable outcome. Marketing also concentrates on different target groups as costumers and consumers. Each of the four P’s (Product, Place, People, and Promotion) deals with the idea of reaching out to the right people. Two types of marketing are dominant: The Mainstream approach has the goal to achieve as many people as possible and therefore tries to sell products for the masses. On the other hand we find target group marketing that splits the market into small clusters of consumers assuming they have all the same characteristics. In this way stereotypes grow. A survey of 2002 showed that the reality of TV advertisements does not correlate with the reality outside. That means that the majority of the market is not covered. So how can companies identify diversity opportunities in marketing? The uniqueness of D&I lies in its integral way of viewing things. It addresses every individual, not only a few that are considered as a minority group. Combined with the elements of open-mindedness, an inclusion of new markets can be explored and a full coverage can be achieved. Diversity Marketing focuses on differences by stressing diversity itself (e.g. Deutsche Bank) or by utilising diverse groups as people. Furthermore, value-based marketing sees communication as an attitude and puts the focus on mind-set. A good example is the campaign of NetCologne: “Communitycation” put telephone receivers on the top instead of real human beings without losing credibility. Unilever started a campaign in 2009 with big success. They did their advertisement without models but with “real” women. They included real women so that many women could identify with the campaign. The company had large income due to inclusion as marketing-strategy.
To get there, it is necessary to work with the Marketing department, to take part in D&I Workshops and to take data and analyses for advice (e.g. demographic data). Integrating mainstream diversity strategies supports communication and concepts. Finally, monitoring should be part of the concepts.
All in all, mainstream-mass-marketing does not provide sustained potential. Traditional target-group-approaches bear significant risks. A focus on differences reveals untapped potential. Open-mindedness links in with contemporary values and inclusion is the future-oriented behaviour.
