Business/Mass Marketing

Business and marketing institutions coexist within the corporate arena to focus on the aspect of advertising and promotion. These industries determine marketing strategies and techniques that will realize the purpose of business, and that is establishing a massive consumer population for the benefit not only of the organization but also their consumers as well. There are two popularly known marketing strategies that have been present in the marketing system – direct marketing and mass marketing. The dimensions and dynamics of these two types of marketing strategies will be discussed to provide comparative data to give light to their purpose as alternative methods of reaching into markets.
Mass marketing is a population-focused strategy in advertising and promotion. This marketing strategy targets majority of the consumer population by providing a variety of products and services and advertising and promotional strategies to appeal to its diverse but large structure. It disregards the different sectors of the consumer population and relies on the universality of the products and services, and advertising and promotional strategies, to attract a large population of consumers. (Niche Marketing vs. Mass Marketing, 2001)

Mass marketing stands at an advantage that allows it to reach a large consumer population at once. It eliminates the problematic task and high financial requirements of reaching market segments one by one. However, the strength of mass marketing remains to be its weakness. Mass marketing seems to target a large audience however the lasting effects of advertising and promotion is futile; since it operates on a large-scale level, it uses up resources all at once, making it difficult to implement a reinforcement that will strengthen the engagement of the consumer population to the product or services. (Rapp, 1990)
An example of an organization that implements mass marketing as a business strategy is Firefox. After the release of Firefox 1.5, the company adapted a community marketing campaign that urges its users to spread good word about the browser. Firefox utilized amateur videos recorded by their existing consumers as advertising and promotional media for mass marketing purposes. The organization utilized mass marketing to appeal to the average online consumers, since the advertising campaign itself is propelled by Firefox users.
Firefox did not concentrate on a particular segment of the consumer population, but targeted the general audience. (Marson, 2005) Although mass marketing has proven to be instrumental in the process of advertising and promotion, marketing institutions are shifting gear to adapt direct marketing.
Direct marketing, unlike mass marketing, focuses on market segments. It realizes that organizations and marketing institutions are not likely to accomplish their target of massive consumer population because numerous business competitions and a large variety of advertising and promotional campaigns. Direct marketing acknowledges the diversity of the market, especially nowadays where people are more self-indulgent and inimitable. It becomes difficult to segment consumer population into a single category to advertise of promote a product or service. (Bianco, et. al., 2004)
If mass marketing utilizes a single medium for advertising and promotion, direct marketing is more flexible, such that it may use different advertising and promotional techniques or strategies depending on the nature of the target market segments. Resources are utilized by organizations and marketing institutions to research market segments and implement advertising and promotional techniques or strategies that fit each market segment.
Although it is a very specific and fastidious task, it gives way to productivity and efficiency as it realizes the purpose of business and marketing. By focusing on the individuality of the segments of the consumer population, appealing to the target market is accomplished. It creates a discernible line of connection between the product or service and the consumer population because advertising and promotional strategies reflect who they are and what kind of life or image they want to take on as directed by the products or services being marketed by business organizations and marketing institutions. (Rapp, 1990)
References
Bianco, et. al. (2004). The Vanishing Mass Market. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from The
            McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. Website:             http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_28/b3891001_mz001.htm
Marson, I. (2005). Firefox Plans Mass Marketing Drive. Retrieved October 8, 2008 from CNET
            Networks, Inc. Website: http://news.cnet.com/Firefox-plans-mass-marketing-drive/2100-           7344_3-5972089.html
Niche Marketing vs. Mass Marketing. (2001). Retrieved October 8, 2008, from UK-Learning.
            Website: http://www.revision-notes.co.uk/revision/854.html
Rapp, S. (1990). From Mass Marketing to “Direct Marketing.” Retrieved October 8, 2008, from
            The Gale Group, Inc. Website: http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/direct-       marketing/115526-1.html