The Modern Evolution Of Consumer Targeting

Thursday, 29 February 2024, 12:22 pm
Press Release: Hugh Grant

For any business to see success today, they need to know the markets they’re targeting. Certain brands and businesses are more suited to certain groups. It wouldn’t make sense for an adult and edgier brand to appeal to children. Although recently the importance of targeting down to the individual level has been prioritized.

This minute targeting is called hyper-personalisation, where each consumer is treated as a unique market. Or at the very least very small groups of people are targeted. One of the best brands at doing this today is Spotify. Spotify will create personal playlists for its users, edit broader playlists, and suggest songs for existing playlists. The app itself fundamentally functions differently depending on the user.

On top of this Spotify Wrapped represents another form of hyper-personalisation, where the consumer is presented with their individual information. Customers are 72% more likely to respond to exclusively crafted marketing messages. Spotify Wrapped tells users how they’ve spent their time using Spotify, and is a big source of exposure. In a sense, wrapped is really just an advertising tool, but people really appreciate it being available.

The popularity of hyper-personalisation is a recent change due to advancements in metrics and user statistics. Businesses now know exactly when and how people are using products and can adapt with that information. Statistics like time usage, engagement, purchasing data, and browsing data are all commonly used. AI powered intelligence has only amplified this effect with more detailed information existing now than ever.

Amazon, for example, isn’t just offering suggestions but attempts to predict what its users will buy. How is Amazon able to do this? The company uses past purchases and history to show people the products they are likely to buy. Even beyond that it can show products at the exact moment that they’re likely to buy them. Amazon’s specialized emails have a 35% higher conversion rate than general product emails due to these factors.

Overall, 86% of businesses report better results from hyper-personalization. For services like Netflix it’s to the point where most watched films are recommended. People are much less likely to search for content and more likely to spend time on hyper-specialized services. The algorithm and technology of these services has become quite important due to this fact.

Of course not all services can be hyper-personalized in this same way. A restaurant can only offer so many options, not whatever the customer demands, like a service such as Spotify. It also cannot present the options in a unique way to each customer, like Netflix. Instead it turns to other more indirect ways of specializing to individuals.

For example, a hyper-personalized app or online platform can be a useful tool for any business. Starbucks app features hyper-personalization and greatly increases incremental revenue for the company. It pays to incorporate hyper-personalization, even when not easy.

Of course hyper-personalization is only one tool and aspect of modern targeting and success. Another important but underrated aspect is brand consistency. If a consumer thinks of a brand as one thing but realizes it’s another, they’re not going to stick around. Not only do people need to be targeted, but they need to be consistently and appropriately targeted.

Inconsistent branding can create marketplace confusion and slower sale cycles. Customers want consistent interactions and experiences with brands. All of this goes to create customer loyalty. To return to Spotify, the brand has a very clear, trendy, and fun image. Spotify Wrapped only works because people really respect what Spotify offers and the strong visual presentation.

Through the use of these two tools, a customer can be targeted effectively. Hyper-specialization brings people in and creates loyalty to the brand. Consistency ensures that customers are retained and that the brand presence is positive. Not every business will need to focus extensively on these two things, but it’s a consideration for any good business.

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