No treasured marketing principle was left safe as Mark Ritson took to the stage at Cannes in Cairns last week.
Ritson welcomed the crowd in a classic Ritson-esque manner – “hello f*ckers!”. He then went on to challenge the teachings of legendary marketing professor Philip Kotler, explaining why they are now mostly out of date.
The three main marketing principles Kotler once outlined are segmentation, marketization, and positioning. However, Ritson said these precepts are now “wobbling” and that “these three precepts are maybe not as applicable as all of us once thought”.
Whilst Ritson described himself as a conservative – “I don’t like change, for the sake of change” – he said that we cannot deny that change is happening.
The main principle to take a hit was segmentation: “I have a couple of problems with segmentation, we have to be honest. So first of all, they’re often not actionable. You can’t reach segment one without also reaching two, three and four. Thereby it’s kind of pointless,” Ritson said.
More importantly, he added, they aren’t really meaningful.
“We know the difference between Gen Y and Gen X. They’re a little bit younger, they’re a little bit thinner, they’re getting a little more sex. But that’s not because they’re in a different segment. It’s because they’re 15 years younger”.
He pointed to research that shows, whilst it’s impossible to predict which ad will come out top, the best-performing ad is generally the best-performing ad across different segments.
Whilst marketers should, therefore, be embracing mass marketing, there are other challenges with this which include, namely, budget. Most brands cannot afford to reach everyone.
Thankfully there are ways to get around this, Ritson added. One way was geography. He talked about Macalister Brewing Company, a beer company that is solely based in North Queensland.
“There’s no f*cking difference in far north Queensland beer tastes as far as I can see, it’s just that the brewing company can’t afford to go outside of that small regional area where they still have mass market”.
Another option, he said, was surprisingly simple.
“Go for former customers. It’s dumb, but it works. Go for clients that bought from us in 2021, but didn’t buy for 2022. It’s a fruitful segment, your competitor’s customers that might have complex segmentation pitches, just go after customers who are currently with your competitors”.
Step aside Kotler!
