So, What is Micro Marketing?

Following my post last week on the benefits of training your salesforce to become micro marketers, a number of people called me enquiring what is micro marketing, for they never heard the term before. Not surprising; for while there is an abundance of literature on marketing at the macro level, there is precious little from reputable sources on the study and practice of micro marketing.

Let’s begin our discussion by revisiting two definitions of marketing (at the macro level) from impeccable sources, following which we will move to its subset, micro marketing.

“Marketing is the strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand." - Chartered Institute of Marketing (2008).

Underpinning this definition is the CIM’s belief that marketing creates value by, bundling brands, nurturing innovation, developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits. (Did you notice a hint at micro marketing?)

“Marketing can be viewed as a business philosophy and an organisational culture, and the means of driving strategies toward meeting the organisation’s objectives. Marketing reaches well beyond simply identifying customer’s needs; it provides a focus for the organisation in deploying limited resources, normally within competitive environments where rivals organisation exists.” - Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulaud (2012).

Recall that at the heart of marketing there are three strategic strands; segmenting markets, targeting attractive segments, and positioning the organisation and its brands to achieve a competitive advantage. And since nobody needs a reminder of the 7Ps of marketing, I shall not mention that they are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes and Physical Evidence, for you already know that.

Micro Marketing

Having looked at marketing in general terms let’s consider perspectives on micro marketing from some of the most influential marketing thinkers.

“Mass marketing prevailed up until the mid-1970s. Through just-in-time thinking and time-based competition there is a far greater emphasis today on one-to-one marketing.” - Wilson and Gilligan (2005). 

Having heard from my favourite marketing thinkers let's listen to Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulaud (2012) “Perhaps the ultimate in targeting and positioning is the attempt to offer products customised to the requirements of individual customers.” Notice the departure from mass marketing?

Meanwhile Schiffman and Kanuk (2007) speaking of a corporate philosophy centred on customer value, satisfaction and retention state that, “Sophisticated marketers build selective relationships with customers, based on where customers rank in terms of profitability, rather than merely striving to retain customers.”

But our discussion would not be complete without reference to Malcolm McDonald. Known for his outstanding work in the disciplines of marketing planning and sales management, he states in his 2007 classic, Key Account Management, the Definitive Guide, “One thing is abundantly clear from our detailed segmentation work: price is rarely the prime motivator in the way people buy.” Allied to this, in his other 2007 work, Marketing Plans, How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them, McDonald suggests that, “Most marketing takes place during the service delivery and customer contact process, in all its forms.” In addition to micro segmentation, this, we suggest, is what micro marketing is really about.

Mass communication tools of advertising, events and experiences, sales and trade promotions, and public relations are great for creating deep broad brand awareness, and informing target markets of points of parity and points of difference. But in an age of product parity, or when offering complex products such as financial services, it often takes a skilful micro marketer to create the positive accessible reactions and resolve lingering buying concerns. Distilled, we suggest that the essence of micro marketing is building your brand, and increasing revenues, one customer interaction at a time.

Herman D. Alvaranga is a marketing and sales strategist at the Caribbean School of Sales Management. He may be contacted by E-mail at [email protected]