Smart Marketing

A great example of vertical marketing

Segway, the manufacturers and marketers of "personal transporters" have just introduced their  Segway Golf Transporter product, a product that focuses on the specific needs of golfers. In pursuing this marketing strategy, the company provides a classic example of a horizontal marketer that turns its attention to specific vertical markets.

Since January 2002, when the company first produced its pre-production models, it marketed the product to society as a whole. However, the challenges with marketing to a broad class of customers that cross over demographic, geographic and psychographic variables, are many. You risk:

• Diluting your message
• Diluting your advantages and
• Diluting your marketing dollars.

Pursuing vertical markets is a logical choice for a company like this. In addition to the golf transporter, the company is also now marketing to police departments. Companies are now beginning to understand that when you vertically market to a population segment you improve the focus of your efforts and messaging.

For example, I have seen the Segway trasporters for a while now, and always wondered why I would need one. However, because I'm an avid golfer, now that I've seen the golf transporter, I've taken a much more avid interest in it. It appeals to me more.

Watch how Segway moves into other vertical markets in the future. I'm convinced they will see the many benefits to vertical marketing and move their entire marketing effort in that direction.

For more information on horizontal vs. vertical marketing, read my article called Vertical Marketing v. Horizontal Markeitng; Which is Right for You?

Consumers will increasingly lead your marketing

Yesterday's New York Times ran an article called Madison Avenue's 30 Second Spot Remover where it warned about the end of traditional advertising. The article, which profiled Robert Greenberg of R/GA, drew attention to the rising role that consumers play in interactive advertising.

Among the examples it cited were:

• A Nike billboard in Times Square that allows consumers to enter  commands from their cellphones to actually customize the footwear appearing on the billboard above them
• Subaru's website that lets car buyers actually "build" a car from scratch
• Response codes that are embedded on movie posters that allow trailers to be downloaded onto cellphones

One of the core messages of the article can be summed up in a quote by Mr. Greenberg himself: "The Internet is a new language because it's not linear. The novel is linear, film is linear, but the web is not."

Keep tuned in to this development in the field of marketing. More and more consumers are driving a company's marketing efforts and this trend seems to be gaining steam...