Undifferentiated marketing is just another way to describe the efforts that businesses and individuals take for a mass marketing campaign. At its very core, undifferentiated marketing has no concern for a target demographic or meeting any specific needs. It’s used to promote something to almost everyone in the world, often because it is a helpful product that most people need. Items like food, beverages, or personal care supplies are often the subject of undifferentiated marketing.
The key to using the following undifferentiated marketing examples in a successful way is to find a niche that no other product has touched in some way. Your product needs to stand out in some way. Something as simple as an unusual color is often enough to distinguish the product you’re marketing to other mass marketed items.
1. Social Media Works
The number of social media sites that can get your product in front of multiple people is outstanding. Many people focus on the Big Four: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus. What cannot be forgotten, however, is that Foursquare, Instagram, LinkedIn, and several other social sites all provide the chance for people to interact with each other.
2. Blogging Works
Mass marketing and blogging really do go hand in hand. Many people look at blogging as a way to market a specific idea to a specific demographic. It can also be used to reach the masses with certain products that have global appeal. As long as you can show off the value your products have in some way, you’ll find some success in the undifferentiated medium.
3. Offline Works
Sometimes you can go offline with your mass marketing and find success. Businesses were using undifferentiated marketing long before the internet came around. Global brands utilized other resources, such as newspapers, magazines, television ads, and even the Yellow Pages to get information out about what they had. Although these offline methods might not be as widely popular as they once were, they are still proven to be effective.
4. Product Placements
Billions of dollars are spent every year to place products where people will see them. Movies and television are often the most common places for undifferentiated marketing to occur, but it happens on local and regional scales as well. The simple act of a retailer placing a product outside of their store qualifies as a product placement.
5. Billboards
The billboard effect in undifferentiated marketing is more about building brand reputation than it is providing specific information. The average driver isn’t going to be able to remember a phone number or a website that they see on a billboard or stationary advertisement. They are, however, going to remember the brand and be able to use a search engine to look it up when they get to work or make it home. Great branding always equates to great results, so that should be your focus here.
6. Signage Works
It might take money to make money, but it takes signage to create results. Mass marketing through signage can happen virtually anywhere. Common places are the side of a bus, the top of a taxi, or the back of a bench. You’ll also find it on the seat of a grocery store cart, on product packaging, or even on a banner being pulled by an airplane.
7. Online Paid Advertising
One of the most common ways that businesses use undifferentiated marketing with online ads is through Google AdWords. There are a number of additional advertising opportunities from smaller agencies that provide a similar service. The best feature of online paid advertising is that a follow-along campaign can be created so that consumers who click on an ad but don’t become a conversion can be reminded of the value that they initially saw.
8. Affiliations
Affiliate marketing has also become a form of undifferentiated marketing today. Affiliates are able to market your products to their specific demographics. The advantage here is clear: your product reaches all parties with a specific message. Your affiliates target specific demographics for sales based on their knowledge and relationships of their demographic preferences. This creates personal relationships on a mass market scale and that often means better revenue numbers.
9. Go Door to Door
Flyers that are either distributed door-to-door or are mailed to zip codes to all customers can provide some local appeal. Finding leads can be a little difficult at times, so combining the personal touch with mass market appeal can often create stunning results if they are given half a chance.
10. Advertorials
The problem with advertisements is that the average person is going to ignore them. That’s why the invention of the advertorial is such a key undifferentiated marketing concept. You purchase advertising space, but instead of putting in a traditional ad, you submit content that is much like an article. People will read the content, see it as a news story, and this generates an added level of mass appeal.
11. Seek Out Trade Media
Trade media can give your mass marketing efforts some niche expertise. The 1 on 1 approach that consumers see in modern marketing works because it is based on value. Value translates into a relationship. Relationships then inspire loyalty. Niche expertise that gets this chain of events started because expertise is at the heart of value. Why get information from one source if a second source has more experience, wisdom, and knowledge? Trade media will provide an automatic atmosphere of this expertise, even if you’ve never been in that demographic before.
12. Sponsored Space
Search engines and local business have one thing in common: sponsorships. You can place sponsored ads at the top of search engines. You can also sponsor business in certain ways, much like a company puts their name on a college football game, like the Tosito’s Fiesta Bowl.
For the average business, the goal is usually to stay away from undifferentiated marketing because the message can be easily lost. By incorporating these specific ideas about approaching the mass market, however, you may be able to find that additional level of success that you’ve been working to find.
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