Mass marketing

Mass marketing is a market strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and appeal
the whole market with one offer or one strategy,[1] which supports the idea of broadcasting a message that will
reach the largest number of people possible. Traditionally mass marketing has focused on radio, television and
newspapers as the media used to reach this broad audience. By reaching the largest audience possible,
exposure to the product is maximized, and in theory this would directly correlate with a larger number of sales
or buys into the product.

Mass marketing is the opposite of niche marketing, as it focuses on high sales and low prices and aims to
provide products and services that will appeal to the whole market. Niche marketing targets a very specific
segment of market; for example, specialized services or goods with few or no competitors.[2]

Contents
Background
Persuasion in mass marketing
Shotgun approach
Guerrilla marketing
Use and products sold
Questions of quality
Benefits of mass marketing
Drawbacks of mass marketing
Psychological impact
See also
References

Background
Mass marketing or undifferentiated marketing has its origins in the 1920s with the inception of mass radio use.
This gave corporations an opportunity to appeal to a wide variety of potential customers. Due to this, variety
marketing had to be changed in order to persuade a wide audience with different needs into buying the same
thing. It has developed over the years into a worldwide multibillion-dollar industry. Although sagging in the
Great Depression it regained popularity and continued to expand through the 40s and 50s. It slowed during the
anti-capitalist movements of the 60's and 70's before coming back stronger than before in the 80's, 90's and
today. These trends are due to corresponding upswings in mass media, the parent of mass marketing. For most
of the twentieth century, major consumer-products companies held fast to mass marketing- mass-producing,
mass distributing and mass promoting about the same product in about the same way to all consumers. Mass
marketing creates the largest potential market, which leads to lowered costs. It is also called overall marketing.

Over the years marketing activities have notably transitioned from traditional forms, such as television, radio
and print advertisements to a more digitalized forms, such as the utilisation of online media platforms to reach
various consumers. Huang (2009, as cited in Shyu et al., 2015), explains three chief attributes digital marketing
has enhanced; one being “Penetrating Power” which is to have the ability to reach a wider circle of customers
in the market, accredited to the ease of online communication. Digital marketing allows for a marketer to reach
a larger-scale audience in a more efficient and cost-effective manner, which is ultimately what Mass Marketing
seeks to do.[3]

Persuasion in mass marketing

For a mass marketing campaign to be successful, the advertisement must appeal to a “set of product needs that
are common to most consumers in a target market.” (Bennett & Strydom, 2001) In this case it is unnecessary to
segment consumers into separate niches as, in theory, the product should appeal to any customer's wants
and/or needs. Many mass marketing campaigns have been successful through persuading audiences using the
central route to persuasion, as well as using the peripheral route to persuasion, according to the Elaboration
Likelihood Model. Lane et al. state that the different types of persuasion depend on the “involvement, issue-
relevant thinking, or elaboration that a person dedicates to a persuasive message.” (2013).[4] Political
campaigns are a prime example of central persuasion through mass marketing; where the content of the
communication involves a detailed level of thinking which seeks to achieve a cognitive response.
Contrastingly, a toothpaste advertisement would typically persuade the audience peripherally; where there is
low involvement and consumers rely on “heuristics” to alter their behaviour. John Watson was a leading
psychologist in mass marketing with his experiments in advertising.

Shotgun approach
The shotgun theory is an approach of mass marketing. It involves reaching as many people as possible through
television, cable and radio. On the Web, it refers to a lot of advertising done through banners to text ads in as
many websites as possible, in order to get enough eyeballs that will hopefully turn into sales. An example of
shotgun marketing would be to simply place an ad on primetime television, without focusing on any specific
group of audience.[5] A shotgun approach increases the odds of hitting a target when it is more difficult to
focus on one.[6]

A potential limitation of using the shotgun approach is that each receiver will interpret the message in their
own way, whether this be the way the sender intends for it to be decoded, or not. In other words, the receiver's
“frame of reference” at the time of decoding enables them to perceive a brand message in a particular way;
thus, the marketer's intention may be become distorted. Dahlen, Lange, & Smith (2010) claim that each
receiver has different “attitudes, values and perceptions stemming from knowledge, experience or the influence
of other people.” In situations where there is no specific target market, mass marketers should simply focus on
grabbing the attention of consumers in “different, surprising, original and entertaining” ways in order to
generate the most desirable feedback. (Bigat, 2012).

Guerrilla marketing
Guerrilla marketing aims to cut through clutter by attracting attention in unique, memorable and imaginative
ways to “maximise interest in a firm’s goods and services while minimizing the costs of advertising.” (Bigat,
2012). According to Kotler (2007, as cited in Bigat, 2012) this type of marketing was traditionally carried out
by small to medium-sized enterprises but has become more predominant in today's society where competition
is substantially thicker. It is particularly effective at reaching a large-scale audience due to the captivating
nature of the advertisement.

Bigat discusses the role of technology, more specifically, of the internet and its effectiveness of disseminating a
large message from the sender to receivers; to which he states that “Internet blogs, online magazines,
newspapers along with chat and forum pages are crucial arenas for getting the message across.” Logically, this
is due to the fact that digitalised media generates more efficient feedback from consumers. Mass marketers
should aim to effect the behaviour of their consumers by having them engage with the brand in a positive way,
which, in turn tends to more activity (both on and offline) as well as further market penetration.[7]

Use and products sold

Mass marketing is used to effect attitude change to as wide an audience as possible. Often this would take the
form of selling a product like toothpaste. Toothpaste isn't made specially for one consumer and it is sold in
huge quantities. A company or individual who manufactures toothpaste wishes to get more people to buy their
particular brand over another. The goal is when a consumer has the option to select a tube of toothpaste that
the consumer would remember the product which was marketed. Mass marketing is the opposite of niche
marketing, where a product is made specially for one person or a group of persons. Other products of mass
marketing are furniture, artwork, automobiles, residential communities, fizzy drinks and personal computers.
Typically, things which are perceived to be necessary/essential to the consumer are subject to mass marketing.
Resources of mass marketing provide cost-effective marketing solutions for small and micro businesses,
including start-ups. Even "products" like politicians and services from professions such as law, chiropractic
and medicine, are subject to mass marketing.

Questions of quality
To further increase profits, mass marketed products touted as "durable goods" are often made of substandard
material, so that they deteriorate prematurely. This practice is called planned obsolescence. Not only does this
lower production costs, but it ensures future sales opportunities by preventing the market from becoming
saturated with high-quality, long-lasting goods. The forces of a free market tend to preclude the sale of
substandard staples, while disposability, technological innovations, and a culture of collection all facilitate
planned obsolescence.

Many mass marketed items are considered staples. These are items people are accustomed to buying new
when their old ones wear out (or are used up). Cheaper versions of durable goods are often marketed as staples
with the understanding that they will wear out sooner than more expensive goods, but they are so cheap that
the cost of regular replacement is easily affordable.

Benefits of mass marketing

Since the target audience is broad, the number of successful hits is high despite the low probability of a single
person turning up, and if all the efforts in one particular area goes in vain, the eventual loss is less compared to
one in a narrowly focused area. Production costs per unit are low on account of having one production run for
homogeneous product, and marketing research/advertising costs are also relatively low as well,[8] which, as a
whole, leads to higher potentials of sales volume and efficiency of scale in a much larger market.[9]

Drawbacks of mass marketing

Due to increased competition and the complexity of consumers’ wants and needs in today's society, Bennett
and Strydom (2001) suggest that mass marketing campaigns are less likely to be successful; as consumers have
a range of specific tastes and requirements that they would more likely find in alternative products.

Psychological impact
Mass marketing has been criticized for the psychological impact on viewers, as critics believe that it makes the
reader more vulnerable to issues such as eating disorders. In a 2006 article by Sharlene Hesse-Biber et al. for
the Women's Studies International Forum, they state that the "food, diet, and fitness industries, aided by the
media, espouse the message that independence for women in general, means self-improvement, self-control,
and that it is the women's responsibility to achieve the ultra-slender body ideal”.[10]

Critics also note that marketers have people fill out surveys with specific questions that allow them to have the
information they need to best target and persuade their potential customers, which can manipulate them into
believing that they need or want the product being marketed.[11][12] Historically, mass marketing has been
used to popularize products such as mouthwash and cigarettes via advertisements and slogans, in order to
reach markets that may have previously not assumed that the product was necessary for their daily lives.[13]

See also
Demographic profile
Market segmentation
Marketing strategy
Niche market
No Size Fits All: From Mass Marketing to Mass Handselling (book)
Precision marketing
Psychographic
Target market

References
1. "Mass Marketing" (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mass-marketing.html). 2012.
Retrieved 2 May 2012. "Business Dictionary"
2. “Niche Market.” Business: The ultimate resource. (2002). Cambridge, Mass: Perseus
Publications:1294.
3. Shyu, M., Chiang, W., Chien, W., & Wang, S. (2015). Key success factors in Digital Marketing in
Service Industry and the Development Strategies: A case study on Fleur De Chine at Sun
Moon Lake. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 8(1), 172-185.
4. Lane, R., Miller, A. N., Brown, C., & Vilar, N. (2013). An Examination of the Narrative
Persuasion with Epilogue through the lens of the Elaboration Likelihood Model.
Communication Quarterly, 61(4), 431-445. doi: 10.1080/01463373.2013.799510
5. "shotgun marketing |" (http://www.techopedia.com/definition/24119/shotgun-approach).
"Undifferentiated audience"
6. Mc Daniel, Carl; F.Hair, Joseph; Lamb, Charles W. (January 14, 2008). Essentials of marketing
(https://books.google.com/?id=9Kf_O1eI0J4C&pg=PA224&lpg=PA224&dq=marketing+approa
ches+-+shotgun+approach#v=onepage). p. 224. ISBN 978-0324656206.
7. Bigat, E. C. (2012). Guerrilla Advertisement and Marketing. Procedia - Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 51(1), 1022-1029. doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.08.281
8. Bennett, J. Alf; Strydom, Johan Wilhelm (2001). Introduction to travel and tourism marketing (htt
ps://books.google.com/?id=USqcuWxTemEC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62&dq=benefits+of+mass+ma
rketing#v=onepage). p. 62. ISBN 0702156361.
9. L. Burrow, James; Bosiljevac, Jim (2005). Marketing (https://books.google.com/?id=royU59GUZ
iEC&pg=PA183&lpg=PA183&dq=marketing+approaches+-+mass+marketing+advantages#v=o
nepage). South Western Educational Publishing. p. 183. ISBN 0538446641.
10. Hesse-Biber, Sharlene; Leavy, Patricia; Quinn, Courtney E.; Zoino, Julia (2006-03-01). "The
mass marketing of disordered eating and Eating Disorders: The social psychology of women,
thinness and culture" (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277539506000070).
Women's Studies International Forum. 29 (2): 208–224. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2006.03.007 (https://
doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.wsif.2006.03.007). ISSN 0277-5395 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0277-
5395).
11. Eighmey, John; Sar, Sela (2007). "Harlow Gale and the Origins of the Psychology of
Advertising". Journal of Advertising. 36 (4): 147–158. doi:10.2753/JOA0091-3367360411 (http
s://doi.org/10.2753%2FJOA0091-3367360411). ISSN 0091-3367 (https://www.worldcat.org/iss
n/0091-3367). JSTOR 20460820 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20460820).
12. Friestad, Marian; Wright, Peter (1995). "Persuasion Knowledge: Lay People's and
Researchers' Beliefs about the Psychology of Advertising". Journal of Consumer Research. 22
(1): 62–74. doi:10.1086/209435 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F209435). ISSN 0093-5301 (https://
www.worldcat.org/issn/0093-5301). JSTOR 2489700 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/2489700).
13. "This Is Your Brain On Ads: How Mass Marketing Affects Our Minds" (https://www.npr.org/2019/
04/25/717105311/this-is-your-brain-on-ads-how-mass-marketing-affects-our-minds). NPR.org.
Retrieved 2020-02-19.

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