Following my column last week on the benefits of training your sales force to become micro marketers, a number of people called me enquiring what is micro marketing, as they never heard the term before. Not surprising; for while there is an abundance of literature on marketing at the macro level, there is precious little from reputable sources on micro marketing.

Let’s begin our discussion by revisiting two definitions of marketing (at the macro level) from two impeccable sources, following which we will then move to its subset, micro marketing.

“Marketing is the strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating and fulfilling customer demand.”

— Chartered Institute of Marketing (2008)

Underpinning this definition is the CIM’s belief that marketing creates value by: bundling brands, nurturing innovation, developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits. (Did you notice a hint at micro marketing?)

Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulaud (2012) put it differently. “Marketing can be viewed as a business philosophy and an organisational culture, and the means of driving strategies toward meeting the organisation’s objectives. Marketing reaches well beyond simply identifying customer’s needs; it provides a focus for the organisation in deploying limited resources, normally within competitive environments where rivals’ organisation exists.”

Recall that at the heart of marketing there are three strategic strand: segmenting markets, targeting attractive segments, and positioning the organisation and its brands to achieve a competitive advantage. And since nobody needs a reminder of the 7Ps of marketing, I shall not mention that they are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes and Physical Evidence, for you already know that.

Micro Marketing

Let’s now consider the perspectives on micro marketing of some of the most influential marketing thinkers.

“Mass marketing prevailed up until the mid-1970s. Through just-in-time thinking and time-based competition there is a far greater emphasis today on one-to-one marketing.”

— Wilson and Gilligan (2005)

Meanwhile Hooley, Piercy, Nicoulaud (2012) claim that, “Perhaps the ultimate in targeting and positioning is the attempt to offer products customised to the requirements of individual customers.”

This writer’s experience is that sophisticated marketers build selective relationships with customers, based on where customers rank in terms of profitability, rather than merely striving to “retain customers”.

But let’s get a final word from Malcolm McDonald, who — in his 2007 classic,

Key Account Management, the Definitive Guide — states, “One thing is abundantly clear from our detailed segmentation work: price is rarely the prime motivator in the way people buy.” In his other 2007 work,Marketing Plans, How to Prepare Them, How to Use Them, McDonald suggests that, “Most marketing takes place during the service delivery and customer contact process, in all its forms.” In addition to micro-segmentation, this, we suggest, is what micro marketing is really about.

Mass communication tools of advertising, events and experiences, sales and trade promotions, and public relations are great for creating deep, broad, brand awareness, and informing target markets of points of parity and points of difference.

But in an age of product parity, and when offering complex products such as financial services, it often takes a skilful micro marketer to create the positive accessible reactions and resolve lingering buying concerns.

Distilled, that interactive process which exceeds more than merely satisfying known customer needs, we suggest, is the essence of micro marketing. To us micro marketing is about moving customers from a state of brand awareness to brand preference and ultimately brand resonance, while increasing revenues, one customer at a time.