Bye-Bye Total Market

The Clock Has Run Out on The One-size-fits-all Total Market Approach to Marketing

“The times, they are a-changing.” Bob Dillon’s song was never more relevant than it is today. Thursday I will be presenting a webinar for ANA/AIMM, Along with Hilton’s Global Brand Marketing exec Betsen Philip, about marketing in today’s more diverse America.

The conclusion is that the clock has run out for the idea of using a Total Market Approach to marketing. The one-size-fits-all approach of appealing to a common denominator in marketing and advertising is dead. Or as Aaron Walton, CEO of Walton Isaacson said, “Total Market went from being offensive to being dangerous.

Thanks to the brilliant team at the ANA’s Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing like Carlos Santiago, we now have measurement tools and insights to determine if advertising content is effective and to what degree does incorporating cultural insights increase sales. The sales attribution numbers are mind blowing. Reflecting culture in content accounts for 40% of sales variation in campaigns. This is a huge statement when you consider how many variables like price and distribution affect sales.

Of course, this will likely make more sense to the degree that Modern Marketers eliminate bias driven barriers from their organizations. Those that do will do three things: 1) Embrace diverse representation in marketing; 2) Examine structural blind spots to identify hurtles to implementing segment-specific strategies; and 3) Identify segment-specific insights drawn from a thorough growth opportunity analysis.
 

About Roberto Orci

Roberto is a marketing leader with extensive experience in numerous industries and a leading voice in diversity and inclusion as a business imperative. He can be reached at do************@gm***.com.