What is Concentrated Marketing?
Concentrated marketing is a strategy where a brand focuses all its resources and efforts on targeting a singular and specific target market segment. A market segment is basically a section of the present and potential customers that have certain common characteristics.
Every company, once it’s done developing the product, has to brainstorm on an effective marketing strategy. For that purpose, you need to first define your target customers. Once you know your target market, you’ll need to then identify the customer needs and wants.
With the target customer base defined, you can then decide if you need to opt for a broader marketing approach or a focused approach. If you end up choosing a focused approach then concentrated marketing is for you.
Concentrated marketing is mostly adopted by small businesses with limited resources. They can focus all their efforts on winning a particular market segment.
Characteristics of Concentrated Marketing
In concentrated marketing, the strategy is designed to be very specific. This is because the target is only a single market segment. Moreover, there are several different features of this strategy that we have listed down below.
- Using this strategy, the companies have to “concentrate” on a very specific market. This helps them deliver products that are designed keeping that market in mind.
- The consequence of this is simple, the needs of the market segment are always at the center of the product development process.
- Since the product itself provides solutions to the customer's needs, marketing teams only have to reiterate that point.
- With concentrated marketing, companies can efficiently use their production, distribution, branding, and marketing resources.
- The company employing this strategy has to have some expertise in the focused market segments. Knowing what may work and what won’t while designing the product can help the product penetrate the market easily.
- This strategy can be easily implemented by small businesses, especially in the early stages.
- Finally, only with concentrated marketing, acquiring a large customer base can be difficult.
We can learn more about the specifics on how to implement concentrated marketing by reviewing a few examples in the corresponding sections. Before that, let’s first understand how concentrated marketing is different from differentiated marketing.
Concentrated Marketing VS Differentiated Marketing
The three main marketing strategies that are commonly used are concentrated marketing, differentiated marketing, and undifferentiated marketing. Each of these takes a different approach on how to create a marketing campaign that appeals to your target customer.
They all are designed differently and in this section, we will learn more about what makes them different.
Differentiated marketing
Differentiated marketing strategy focuses on targeting two or more customer segments, unlike concentrated marketing that only focuses on one.
Companies that have a fairly diverse customer base or have a range of products targeting different demographics can use this strategy. Brands focus their marketing campaigns on different customer profiles, to accomplish the following objectives.
- Increase customer base
- Communicate brand’s core messaging
- Increase brand awareness
- Increase customer loyalty
- Meet customer needs
Individual marketing campaigns are designed to be more personalized. It reflects how the product benefits the customer and works for their unique needs. The strategy will need marketing teams to design more than one campaign. It also needs an in-depth understanding of the different market segments, so ad targeting can be done effectively.
Concentrated marketing
Concentrated marketing at its core is similar to differentiated marketing. But it only focuses on one market segment rather than multiple. So this strategy only needs a single marketing campaign, with a single message, and also a single product.
If a company is building a niche product, then this marketing strategy is the way to go. The strategy is extremely cost-effective. So early startups and small businesses can use this. They don’t have to go big and put all their resources into targeting multiple markets. They just have to focus on the niche market and try to make it there.
Concentrated Marketing VS Undifferentiated Marketing
The final marketing strategy in the trio is undifferentiated marketing. In this strategy, teams don’t design their campaigns to focus on market segments. The goal is to reach a broad audience with different needs and characteristics. So this strategy is used to create mass appeal.
It is very different from concentrated marketing as it is the exact opposite of focusing on a niche. Companies with a daily use product usually use this strategy.
The common point between concentrated and undifferentiated marketing is this. They both only design one campaign to reach their audience. So a single message in one case appeals to a wide audience and in the other case appeals to a niche audience.
Examples of Concentrated Marketing
Here are two examples of concentrated marketing in practical use.
Luxury car brands
These brands have their target market already defined - the rich and affluent. So their focus is to create a product that appeals to this segment so they are willing to pay huge sums to own the product. Therefore, luxury car brands usually portray a rich lifestyle in their advertisements.
Toddler or Infant Company
These companies design personal care products for toddlers and infants. The products are designed keeping in mind the needs of this segment. There are strict provisions on the kind of chemicals that can be added to the material or solution. Companies have to cater to that. Marketing campaigns for such products focus on relaying this information so customers know why the product is best suited for their baby.
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