Undifferentiated marketing, also called mass marketing, is a strategy that entails creating one message for an entire audience. It helps businesses reach more people at a lower cost and improves brand recognition.
In this case, companies focus not on how the needs of customers differ from each other but rather on the similarities they have. This strategy best fits businesses that develop products and marketing programs for large market segments that will reach a ton of people.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Undifferentiated Marketing
Companies choose this strategy when it is difficult to identify their target segment of customers or when segments transform over time. There are several pros and cons of undifferentiated marketing to consider.
Pros of undifferentiated marketing:
- cost-effective in the long run;
- no need for constant changes to content;
- greater reach;
- no in-depth market research necessary;
- improved brand recognition.
Cons of undifferentiated marketing:
- changes in your business environment can be triggered by changes in price, consumer preference, or inflation;
- it doesn’t bring many loyal customers;
- it is challenged by competitors focused on satisfying the needs of a smaller segment of your audience.
So now that you know the main pros and cons, let’s discover the difference between differentiated and undifferentiated marketing.
Undifferentiated Marketing vs Differentiated Marketing
Understanding the main points of differentiated and undifferentiated marketing strategy enables you to choose the most appropriate approach for your future business. Consider all the options and select the strategy that best fits your company.
Undifferentiated marketing
It is used by companies that produce everyday products for common use. Campaigns created with this strategy don’t require in-depth research to reveal the needs and preferences of your target audience. The strategy aims at influencing and reaching as many people as possible. To achieve this goal, marketers use radio, TV, and newspapers as product promotion channels. As a result, the company exposes the product to a wider audience, which directly correlates with the number of sales and total revenue.
This approach makes the most sense for widely consumed items like gasoline, soft drinks, dairy products, bread, personal hygiene products, etc. Companies selling these kinds of products should always monitor the values, attitudes, and behaviors of customers since they are constantly evolving.
Differentiated marketing
With this strategy, businesses can appeal to several customer segments and target groups by using a special message for each. Unlike mass marketing, a differentiated strategy enables companies to develop separate approaches to reach different audiences. Many businesses prefer this type of marketing in their strategy for several reasons:
- it enables them to meet various customers’ needs;
- it helps reach different audiences with different approaches;
- it provides effective resource allocation;
- it provides a competitive advantage;
- it enables quick responses to changes with your audience;
- it helps create an effective distribution channel.
Let’s take, for example, Tesla. This electric vehicle company firstly targets customers in the luxury sector. Their eco-friendly cars have several features that make them differ from others, among them regular software updates, self-driving features, solar panels, and more. That’s why the creators had to segment their target audience.
With SendPulse, you can segment your target audience by applying segmentation criteria and send push notifications, email campaigns, and SMS campaigns to particular contacts and save your segments.
To create a new segment with SendPulse, you should select the appropriate list in the “Mailing list” menu and proceed to the “Segments” tab. Add a new segment by selecting the right criteria.
You can also create a new segment or select an existing one when creating an email campaign. Choose a mailing list and tick “Use segmentation,” where you can select the necessary criteria.
Now that you know the difference between mass and differentiated marketing, it’s time to review some examples to encourage your imagination.
Famous brands and manufacturers of everyday products use mass marketing. So let’s find out how exactly they do it.
Colgate
The company sells a widely used personal care product like toothpaste and reaps the benefits of its successful strategy. Toothpaste is a product that doesn’t have any age categories or a particular group of people who use it, so there is no need to segment customers. As a result, the brand has a big audience.
Coca-Cola
The world-known multinational corporation founded in 1892, Coca-Cola uses mass marketing. The company presented a single product to the market, a carbonated soft drink. The brand has done and continues to do a lot to promote its products to a huge number of consumers worldwide who are ready to buy this famous drink. Over the years, the product has changed its label appearance, bottle shape, aroma, and taste but continues to sell in record numbers.
General Motors
The multinational corporation introduced in 1908 claims to produce equipment suitable for any person, budget, and purpose. Indeed, the company produces vehicles for all age groups, and it’s justified. The company is always ready to deliver products for a wide range of cars from different brands to satisfy the needs of buyers.
Persil
Persil, a brand of laundry detergent first introduced in 1907, is also a great example of mass marketing. Consumer packaged goods like soaps and detergents use undifferentiated marketing strategies as they are used by a big market segment.
M&M’s
A brand famous for its button-shaped chocolates of different colors is a great example of undifferentiated marketing. The company addresses people of all ages and appeals to everyone looking for sweets in its funny commercials on TV. The same M&M’s product that the brand has used years remains the same.
To sum it up, undifferentiated marketing is a strategy that fits companies that don’t segment their audience and address the entire target market by conveying one message to all people.
Resources:
- The article “What Are Differentiated Marketing, Concentrated, and Undifferentiated Marketing?” on the Referral Rock blog defines the term and gives examples of undifferentiated marketing.
- The article “Advantages and Disadvantages of Undifferentiated Marketing” on the Bizfluent blog defines the term and explains its advantages and disadvantages.
- The article “Undifferentiated vs. Differentiated Marketing Strategy: Which is Right for Your Business?” on the Valens Point blog explains the difference between differentiated and undifferentiated marketing and provides readers with their benefits.
Last Updated: 16.02.2022
