As of 2024, a quarter century has passed since the appearance of the Internet, and it is said that the value of old media is declining. However, the influence of mass media is still great, and mass marketing methods themselves are evolving, such as by linking with the Web.
In fact, there are many cases where B2B companies conduct mass marketing, and if an appropriate strategy can be developed, it can be a useful marketing method.
In this article, we will introduce what mass marketing is, its typical methods and examples, as well as the specific steps for implementation.
What is Mass Marketing?
Mass marketing refers to a marketing technique syria b2b leads that approaches many people or the entire broad market. The definitions of "simple mass" and "mass media" are summarized below.
Mass: The entire market, the majority of consumers, an entire industry, or a broad range of businesses
Mass marketing: Marketing to a large number of people
Mass media: Media seen by the majority of people, such as television, newspapers, magazines, and billboards
You often see TV commercials for convenience stores, beer, snacks, detergent, insurance, etc. Mass marketing is extremely effective in advertising products and services that are needed by everyone in their daily lives and that many people find valuable.
In the B2B market, the following are typical business examples that utilize mass marketing:
Human resource services (e.g. Recruit, Manpower Group)
Office equipment manufacturers (e.g. Canon, Ricoh)
Logistics and transportation companies (e.g. Yamato Transport, Nippon Express)
Business consulting firms (e.g. Accenture, Deloitte)
Communications infrastructure companies (e.g. NTT, KDDI)
Since the above industries target companies of a wide range of industries and scales, a strategy of raising widespread brand awareness and building credibility through mass marketing is effective.
However, in the B2B market, in addition to this type of mass marketing, it is common to also develop a personalized communication strategy for each customer to provide more detailed product information and specialized service content.
Background of the development
The development of mass marketing has gone hand in hand with the development of mass media. Below are some historical topics.
1605: The world's first newspaper is published in Germany.
1700s: Newspapers and magazines increase in number in England and France, and newspaper advertising becomes more common.
1867: The first newspaper advertisement appears in Japan.
1920s: Public radio broadcasting begins in the United States , and at the same time radio advertising begins. In 1925, radio broadcasting also begins in Japan.
1939: Experimental TV broadcasting begins in Japan .
1950s: Japan's first commercial broadcasting station, Nippon Television , was launched in 1953. The first TV commercial was for "Seiko . "
Mass marketing was mainstream until the spread of the Internet in the 2000s, and major B2C consumer goods manufacturers in particular used mass marketing to promote their products to the entire market and sell them in large quantities.
Since 2000, the internet has spread worldwide, and new media such as social media have appeared, and niche marketing has become popular, which brings us to the present day, 2024. Mass media is also strengthening its web-based collaboration by releasing online programs and online media, and is gradually evolving.
The difference between mass marketing and direct marketing
Direct marketing, which is often confused with mass marketing, is a marketing method that takes a direct and personalized approach to specific individuals or companies. These two methods are complementary, and it is important to understand the characteristics of each.
The differences between mass marketing and direct marketing can be summarized as follows:
Mass Marketing
Direct Marketing
subject
A wide range of potential customers
Specific individuals or companies
message
General purpose
Personalized
Main media
TV, radio, newspapers and outdoor advertising
Email, direct mail, telemarketing
KPI
Brand awareness, market share
Open rate, conversion rate
Reaction speed
low
expensive
Cost Structure
High initial investment
Relatively low cost to get started
One thing to keep in mind is the precision of your targeting. Mass marketing delivers messages to a wide range of people, making it suitable for expanding the base of potential customers. On the other hand, direct marketing focuses on a specific persona, making it more likely that you will acquire prospective customers.
The two also differ greatly in the degree of message customization. Mass marketing sends out general messages, whereas direct marketing can customize content based on the recipient's characteristics and behavioral history. This can lead to a higher response rate.
Why is mass marketing important?
Many B2B SaaS companies focus on web marketing in the early stages of their business because it is cost-effective and has high targeting accuracy, but as the business grows and reaches a stage where it needs to expand rapidly, mass marketing becomes more important.
Mass marketing is particularly effective when customer acquisition through web marketing slows down and you need to expand your reach to potential customers. At this stage, increasing the number of brand-name searches is the key to business growth, and improving brand awareness is important.
Due to the nature of SaaS businesses, the key to growth is expanding ARR (annual recurring revenue) . However, with web marketing alone, there are many cases where the number of users that can be reached reaches a plateau, causing CAC (customer acquisition cost) to soar.
Therefore, if you have implemented web marketing to a certain extent and need to achieve even greater growth from there, or if you have a particularly well-known competitor, it is appropriate to consider introducing mass marketing such as TV commercials. This will increase brand awareness, create new growth opportunities, and improve the LTV/CAC ratio.
