Unlike niche marketing, mass marketing focuses on serving the whole market or a dominant segment of the market. Mass marketing draws on the combined power of high volume sales and low prices. Mass market products are targeted at the entire market. It usually targets the mass markets with heterogeneous ages, locations and preferences. In Africa especially, mass market products appeal to the largest section of the population, making people and businesses that sell them rich, almost instantly.
From cosmetics, clothing, drinks, to technological products, mass marketing has made many people rich. It has built and grown businesses into billions of dollars. Its wide reach, through affordable pricing makes the tiny margins count very significantly in the larger picture.
Coca cola, Facebook, Google are all giants with mass market targets. Wal-Mart, Costco, Kroger, Amazon and Walgreens have also been named as very successful mass market retailers. Indomie Instant Noodles and Special Ice drinks have also followed the mass market strategy in West African countries, and have achieved success.
Mass marketing involves offering products to a wider market, often characterized by low product prices and high volume sales. These characteristics of mass market products make it quicker to make money.
Acceptability
Mass market products are usually offered at very low price. This low pricing makes the products affordable across a large segment of consumers. However, the combined purchasing power of the masses makes mass market offerings lucrative.
It has made many people rich and would continue to make several others rich every day. Often, due to low price, such products are easily accepted by a large number of consumers (economically disadvantaged or well off) with little regard to quality in some cases. Consumers’ primary concern is centered on the product’s ability achieve what it is supposed to do, ignoring other qualities such as packaging, taste, durability, prestige, among others.
Competitiveness
Products targeted at the masses often have several others to compete with. This further drives prices down, as competing products seek greater share of the market. At the least possible price, manufacturers are compelled to begin to pay attention to factors consumers are not primarily concerned with (packaging, durability, quality of services, taste etc). Eventually, a mass marketing campaign begins to value consumers as though they’re top of the market. Those who are able to add these qualities to their products and yet maintain same low price, emerge as leaders in the mass market.
Margins
The competition among mass market products force margins to shrink. Sometimes, you need to break-even to get your products out of the warehouse. However, a good control over operational expenses leaves you in the green. No matter how tiny the profit margin per unit of product, the large sales volumes make it a profitable business to venture into. Consider selling a million units of a product that carries a profit margin of just 10 cent, on a monthly basis.
Many have sought easy-to-do businesses to become rich quickly. There are many business opportunities awaiting you in the mass market, if you’re willing to learn the factors that drive buying decisions among consumers at the base of the market.
The hard work involved must not be discounted. Do not believe that once you start offering mass market products, success in inevitable. You must put in the work. Ultimately, it is the way to make money fast.