Micromarketing is a marketing strategy that is used to advertise a product or service with a narrow customer base. Micromarketing is a strategy businesses use to target a small subsection of their user base. These subsections are defined by specific customer traits, including location, age, interests, household income, occupation, and price sensitivity.
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Understanding micromarketing

Micromarketing most often describes marketing strategies that are customized according to an individual customer, but they can also be customized to a local market or market segment. The strategy itself became popular in the 1990s as mass uptake of the personal computer made it easier for businesses to segment customers and send them information.
Micromarketing is seen as a worthwhile strategy to address the hypercompetitive nature of modern marketplaces. Indeed, consumers prefer to purchase products they feel were developed by businesses to solve specific and sometimes very personal problems.
Micromarketing examples

Let’s now take a look at some micromarketing examples:
Red Bull
In truth, the popular energy drink Red Bull appeals to a broad range of consumers. But the company choose to associate the beverage with extreme sports competitions where it was marketed to a specific group of young male participants in need of an energy boost.
Binaural microphones
3Dio is a family-owned business that makes binaural microphones, which are microphones with a human ear molded to each side. These microphones were developed for a niche community of people who create ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) content on YouTube and similar platforms.
Coca-Cola
No article on micromarketing would be complete without mentioning the Share a Coke campaign. Here, the beverage giant replaced the Coca-Cola label on their 20-ounce bottles with various first names. Before developing the campaign, the company analyzed what names would sell the most according to their customer base. This personal touch became a huge success for Coca-Cola, reporting 19% year-over-year sales growth for the 20-ounce bottle the year after the campaign was launched.
Advantages and disadvantages of micromarketing
The most obvious advantage of a micromarketing strategy is that it is highly targeted. With that in mind, here are some less obvious advantages:
Reduced costs
Micromarketing reduces costs because the target audience is smaller than one seen in a traditional marketing campaign.
Brand awareness
When a business becomes hyper-specific about the type of customer it wants to attract, there is an increased likelihood the customer will become enamored with the brand and tell their friends and family.
Less competition
Micromarketing can be used in conjunction with the long tail strategy, where retailers sell many unique items with relatively smaller quantities sold of each. These niche products tend to have less competition since most retailers prefer to sell popular, high-volume goods.
Let’s now take a look at some of the disadvantages:
Time-intensive
Selecting a narrow and defined market or audience segment requires detailed and thus time-intensive research. Marketing campaigns may also need to be developed for each segment.
Customer acquisition costs
Since the segment comprises fewer people, the average cost of acquiring a new customer is higher. There is a possibility that increased customer acquisition costs negate the cost-saving from targeting a smaller audience in the first place.
Ineffective campaigns
In some cases the marketing effort may be ineffective. With such a narrow band of consumers targeted, a poorly researched campaign will not be relevant to other, more profitable segments by default.
Key takeaways:
- Micromarketing is a marketing strategy that is used to advertise a product or service with a narrow customer base. Micromarketing strategies are customized according to the individual customer, local market, or market segment.
- Micromarketing has been employed successfully by companies such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, and 3Dio.
- Micromarketing reduces costs, increases brand awareness, and encourages businesses to target less competitive niche products. However, the strategy can be time-intensive and is associated with higher customer acquisition costs. The ultra-specific nature of micromarketing may also cause some businesses to target the wrong audience.
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