Targeted marketing campaigns are all the rage. If you can reach target audiences through social media and targeted email and advertising campaigns, why wouldn’t you?
But more targeting isn’t always better. Some brands—such as those that appeal to a broad demographic range—want to appeal to everyone and reach that coveted household-name status. For these businesses, mass marketing might be the answer.
Here’s what mass marketing means, how it can benefit or curtail you, and how to experiment with a few strategies.
What is mass marketing?
Mass marketing is advertising designed to reach and appeal to as many people as possible, regardless of market segment differences. In contrast to niche or targeted marketing, which aims to reach a specific group, mass marketing aims to reach a broad population.
Occasionally referred to as the shotgun approach, mass marketing can occur online or offline to create widespread awareness about your products or services. It’s a large-scale strategy, so the more you can spend, the more likely you are to achieve your goal of widespread brand awareness.
Mass marketing has traditionally been associated with large-scale mass media campaigns—like TV commercials and billboards—and was more prevalent in the mid–20th century when there were fewer advertising channels and less market fragmentation. Mass marketing has become less common in today’s digital age, as more niche consumer interests give way to more specialized marketing strategies.
Benefits of mass marketing
A mass marketing campaign is based on the idea that the more people who come to know about your business, the better. Here are the three main ways it can benefit your business and marketing:
Social proof
When consumers look to make a purchase, they are likely to trust a friend’s endorsement. According to Nielson, 88% of people trust recommendations from people they know best. If your friend says, “Oh yes! I’ve heard of that brand!” it can help affirm your purchase. Since mass marketing is designed to reach so many people, it increases the likelihood of this pivotal endorsement.
Intent seeding
Mass marketing doesn’t target high-intent audiences directly. Instead, it casts a wider net by advertising to a broad audience, sowing seeds of awareness. For example, someone might see a mass-marketed ad for an organic body wash brand (the seed). Two months later, when they run out of body wash, they recall the ad and decide to try the new brand.
Low CPMs
CPM—or cost per thousand impressions—is the cost an advertiser pays for one thousand views of an advertisement. An impression is counted each time the ad is shown.
Generally, advertisers are willing to pay a higher CPM for more segmented audiences, assuming that a more targeted audience is more likely to convert and, therefore, has more value. For example, an advertiser might pay a $15 CPM to reach a target market of Facebook users interested in jewelry but a $5 CPM to reach a general audience.
Economies of scale
Every marketing campaign has production costs, including photography and videography, planning costs, labor, agency fees, and more.
For example, if your brand relies on targeted campaigns, you have to produce different campaigns to match your various audiences with the right messages. However, if your brand focuses on mass marketing campaigns, you can create fewer campaign materials to reach the same number of people, creating economies of scale in mass production and marketing.
Drawbacks of mass marketing
Mass marketing isn’t for every business. Consider these disadvantages:
Wasted spend
There’s a famous quote from pioneering American merchant and entrepreneur, John Wanamaker: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half.”
This comment highlights the pitfalls of mass marketing. Since its broad approach reaches many who won’t purchase your product, you’ll spend money that, in part, won’t produce more sales—i.e., unrecouped expenses. For some businesses, this is worth the heightened brand visibility; for others, this strategy doesn’t yield sufficient returns.
Lack of differentiation
Mass marketing delivers a uniform message to a broad audience, making it potentially less effective than targeted approaches.
For example, imagine you are a female marathon runner and see two ads. One claims, “We make the best running shoe,” and another states, “We make the best high-performance marathon shoe for women.” The latter will more likely capture your interest, because it’s tailored to your needs and preferences.
Scale requirements
One of the greatest benefits of mass marketing is the broad increased brand awareness it can create. But this only works if you can spend enough to reach a large audience effectively. This can be very costly. If your business can’t support this level of investment without seeing an immediate return in sales, mass marketing may not be suitable for you.
Mass marketing strategies
There are a few different ways to execute mass marketing campaigns. The right approach depends on your brand’s channel and messaging strategy. Consider the following approaches:
Multichannel
Multichannel is the most common approach to mass marketing for the simple reason that diversifying your channels increases your chances of reaching as many potential customers as possible. With this strategy, you advertise your product on various mass media platforms, such as TV, billboards, print ads, social media, and bus stops.
To potential customers, multichannel mass marketing makes it feel like wherever they turn, they see your brand. By giving the consumer repeated impressions in different contexts, you reinforce your product in the consumer’s mind.
Single channel
With single-channel mass marketing, you use only one type of communication channel to reach a broad audience with your message. It’s a hybrid between mass and target marketing, in which you segment by channel but nothing else.
For example, Casper, a mattress retailer, sponsored various podcasts after determining podcast audiences were a great fit for their business and the most likely to increase sales volume.
Storytelling approach
Storytelling can apply to any and every channel. By using compelling narratives to market your offerings to a large audience, you can create an emotional connection and make your message more engaging and memorable. Your story should connect to your brand values, but it doesn’t need to directly connect to the benefits of your product or service.
The first step to a storytelling approach is to find a way to anchor your messaging to something other than your product. This often starts with a representative for your brands; you might sponsor sports teams or shows, create a brand mascot, or showcase a celebrity that aligns with your brand values and story. The storytelling approach aims to create a positive affiliation with your brand.
Types of mass marketing campaigns
- Product-focused single-channel marketing
- Product-focused multichannel marketing
- Brand-focused single-channel marketing
- Brand-focused multichannel marketing
How you execute mass marketing campaigns depends on your brand’s channel and messaging strategy. Base your approach on how you answer these two questions: Do you want to focus on your product or brand? Do you want to spread your message via one channel or multiple channels? This can lead you to one of these four strategies:
Product-focused single-channel marketing
This approach concentrates on marketing a specific product through a single communication channel. It’s especially useful when a product aligns well with a particular channel’s audience. For example, to increase sales volume, advertising a new tech gadget on a popular tech podcast or blog.
Product-focused multichannel marketing
Here, the emphasis is still on the product, but marketing efforts span multiple channels. This might involve advertising a specific product on various mass media platforms, such as TV, billboards, print ads, social media, and bus stops. The key is to adapt the product message to suit each channel while maintaining a consistent overall message.
Brand-focused single-channel marketing
This approach is about building brand awareness or identity on a single channel. This might be through a long-term sponsorship deal with a sports team or a series of advertisements on a social media platform. The goal is associating the brand with certain values or lifestyles rather than promoting a specific product or service.
Brand-focused multichannel marketing
In this approach, the focus is on building a brand story across multiple channels. It’s about creating a consistent brand narrative, whether through storytelling, values, or community engagement and sharing it across various platforms to reach as many potential customers as possible.
Mass marketing FAQ
What is a good example of mass marketing?
One of the best mass marketing examples is Google’s Parisian Love ad, which features a series of Google searches that tell a story about one person’s life. It ran during the Super Bowl and on YouTube and other video-sharing platforms to show off Google’s product to a broad audience.
Is mass marketing profitable?
Mass marketing can be profitable in the long term due to its cost efficiency and sustained creation of brand awareness. However, in the short term, it’s typically one of the least profitable forms of marketing, because it may not result in immediate sales.
What types of businesses should consider a mass marketing strategy?
A mass marketing strategy excels when applied to products with broad and straightforward appeal, like toothpaste and cars. Most people need or desire these items, making them ideal for mass marketing efforts.
What are alternatives to mass marketing?
The main alternative to mass marketing is targeted marketing, i.e., marketing tailored to specific audience interests and needs.
