Undifferentiated marketing

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "undifferentiated marketing"? Does it remind you of something similar being offered to the same group? Well, it is exactly that. Undifferentiated marketing is a marketing strategy that treats customers all the same, regardless of gender, age, location, or income level. It is also known as mass marketing. Let's dive in and explore this marketing concept.

Undifferentiated Marketing Definition

Undifferentiated marketing is a marketing strategy that aims to reach as large an audience as possible. Instead of dividing the market into segments, it treats all buyers as a homogeneous group and markets to them in the same way. Undifferentiated marketing is also called mass marketing.

Undifferentiated marketing is best applied to products with a universal appeal such as furniture, cars, laptops, electricity, gas, soap, paper towel, etc. It uses the same marketing strategy for all segments of the population. There's usually only one marketing mix - one product, one price, one placement, and one promotional strategy. Unlike differentiated marketing, undifferentiated marketing looks for shared features among customer groups.

Undifferentiated Marketing Strategy

Undifferentiated marketing strategy treats the market as a whole rather than segmenting it. This allows companies to save costs on market research and personalizing advertising campaigns. Since there is only one marketing mix, it can be adapted and used for multiple campaigns. Marketers do not have to customize marketing messages for each customer group. However, a lot of resources are still required to access the mass market.

Here are the main features of an undifferentiated marketing strategy:

• Products have universal demand

• Treat the market as a whole

• Apply one marketing mix to all campaigns

• Might require a lot of resources to reach a wide audience.

Undifferentiated marketing strategies often make use of mass media, including:

• Traditional media such as TV, press conferences, radio, magazines, newspapers, etc.

• Digital media such as social networks, podcasts, websites, video games, etc.²

Mass media is the best place for brands to reach an audience as nowadays most people appear on at least one media channel. Media is used for all sorts of activities, including work, communication, learning, and entertainment.

The use of conventional media (TV, magazines, etc.) is still prevalent among large corporations. However, most companies today take advantage of digital media to save time and cost in promoting their products.

Undifferentiated Marketing Approach

When it comes to marketing, many marketers would stress the importance of differentiation and specificity. However, in cases where customer needs are rather basic and similar, an undifferentiated marketing approach can save the company a lot of promotion costs.

Undifferentiated Marketing Examples

Undifferentiated marketing examples can be found across industries and product categories. Here are some examples in the clothing, soft drink, and telecommunications sector.

Undifferentiated marketing example: Clothing

Clothing is a product with universal demand. From small children to adults, everyone needs clothes for daily use. This is why most companies in the clothing sector adopt an undifferentiated, rather than customized, marketing strategy to promote their products.

Fig. 1 - Inside a clothing store

An example is Zara - a fashion store chain that has appeared with more than 2,000 physical stores around the world. The brand adopts the same marketing mix for all locations - trendy products, affordable prices, word-of-mouth and social media marketing (promotion), and a smooth shopping experience both in-store and online (place).

Undifferentiated marketing example: Soda

Pepsi and Coca-Cola are global leaders in the soda industry. Both spend a huge amount of money on advertising and promotion to capture a wider market share. However, they also segment the market to cater to different tastes and increase overall sales. Pepsi and Coca-Cola are the best examples of combining undifferentiated and differentiated marketing practices.

Fig. 2 - Coca-Cola bottles and cans

Undifferentiated marketing example: Telecommunication

Like clothing and soda, people around the world use the Internet on a daily basis. Internet service providers can spend less time on tailoring their service to each individual and focus more on quality and customer experience.

For example, Sympatico is a popular Internet service in Canada, with more than 50,000 members. However, their vision extends above the national geography. They want to break “political, economic, and language barriers” and bring the Internet to all with a global-scale telecommunications service.³

Differentiated Marketing vs. Undifferentiated Marketing

Differentiated marketing and undifferentiated marketing are at opposite ends of the spectrum. While differentiated marketing uses differentiation to expand the customer base, undifferentiated marketing does the opposite. It focuses on common features among customer groups.

Both differentiated and undifferentiated marketing is viable marketing strategies, but applicable in different contexts. Undifferentiated marketing would be best applied to staple, everyday products such as salt, sugar, soap, etc. Meanwhile, differentiated marketing is more suitable for products with a dispersed need among customers. For example, coffee can be targeted to different customer groups - students with low-budget, working adults with more available income, and gourmet customers who enjoy premium coffee.

Another difference is that while undifferentiated marketing uses only one message to appeal to the entire market, different marketing customizes the message for different groups.

Undifferentiated Marketing Strategy Advantages and Disadvantages

Now if you're confused about when to adopt an undifferentiated marketing campaign, this section will give you further hints by listing undifferentiated marketing strategy advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of undifferentiated marketing

Here are the main advantages of undifferentiated marketing:

• Low cost - Undifferentiated marketing strategy reduces market segmentation and customized promotion costs. However, companies might still have to spend a lot of money on mass marketing strategies like TV commercials and sponsorships.

• More standardized process - The same process of marketing can be used over and over again. There’s no need to devise multiple campaigns for each segment.

• Less research - Since the market is treated as a whole, less research into each segment is needed. Companies focus on shared characteristics rather than the differences between groups.

• Higher profit margins - The lower costs of undifferentiated marketing campaigns can result in higher profit margins for the company.

Disadvantages of undifferentiated marketing

There are three main disadvantages of adopting an undifferentiated marketing strategy:

• Wasted resources - Undifferentiated marketing promotes the product to everyone, including those who are not interested in the business or have no buying intention. This is known as wasted exposure, which can put a strain on the company’s budget, especially if the business is small.

• Lower relevancy - Marketing messages in undifferentiated marketing may not be as specific and relevant as in differentiated marketing. It might affect customer sentiments when exposed to the message.

• Less responsiveness to market change - The standardized way of doing things may prevent the business from thinking out of the box and responding slowly to changes in taste and preferences.