July 26, 2005
Scratch That Niche
Posted by Kevin | Print This Article
Yesterday Slate posted an interesting article on Geico’s marketing strategy. Its seemingly scatter-shot approach — considering its ubiquitous commercials can vary wildly in approach, from reality-show parodies to painfully dull talking lizards — is actually based on the fact that they have a singular product and a broad market:
“Geico’s scattershot approach makes more sense when you think about their customers. Car insurance has perhaps the broadest target audience of any product. Who is Geico selling to? Pretty much everyoneâ€â€man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, hip or hick. If you drive a car, they want your business. Even extremely broad brands, like Coca-Cola, still have niches they’re trying to dominate (it’s mostly young people who drink sugary sodas, for example). But car insurance companies know no niche. We all drive. We all have insurance (I hope). And we all stay insured through every stage of our livesâ€â€no matter our mood or marital status or income.
“As a result, Geico needs to air a range of spots that will appeal to many different people. Some ads are straightforward and tame (aimed at older drivers), while some are absurd (the kids seem to like this). All for a single product.”
It’s an interesting consideration for associations, particularly trade associations, as we deal with broad markets: Is it a matter of providing specific services for specific niches? Or is it a matter of marketing like we do? Or (probably) some combination of both?
A single “benefit” we offer may be of value to different sub-segments of an industry. That doesn’t mean they’re going to respond to the same message.
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