Engaging Your Customers...Narrowcasting is Now

Marketing Budget +/- by Media for 2014

Have a careful look at this chart... while it provides us with a snap shot of the dramatic change in advertising budgets it also underlines the move from Broadcasting to Narrowcasting. The percentages of budgets that are slated to grow in 2014 are largely confined to those media that are narrowly focused on unique audiences, while the large broadcasting budgets are seeing significant declines.

There is a reduced need for broadcasting, as new technologies allow us to reach segmented audiences more effectively and immediately with the depth of information that appeals to customer loyalty.  And …if organizations are going to reach these smaller audience in a meaningful way  they have to offer benefits and advantages that small audience are looking for -  breadth and depth of knowledge and the ability to choose when and how they want to engage. In a nut shell -   this is the difference today between broadcasting and narrowcasting …broadcasting presents one message to a broad audience while narrow casting delivers different messages to individual members of smaller audiences.

Those companies and organizations who can dominate their niche or category are successful when they leverage a consensual relationship with unique incentives and advantages, depth of information and delivery of that information at time and ...in a way ...that appeals to customers. Like all mediums, broadcasting mediums like radio, or television and print before them …will continue to have an audiences for the foreseeable future…it will just be a smaller piece of the pie ....old mediums never die they simply loose the top spot to more responsive media.

Narrow audiences today can be as few as dozens or hundreds, or as broad as hundreds of thousands - but in the light of the public broadcasting spectrum we once held sacrosanct …these audiences seem insignificant. But …if you were to dialogue with organizations who hold these audiences as their core customers, such as an association of members, suppliers to niche business categories, unique business verticals or specific health care audiences or audiences interested in a very specific topics, be it leisure, entertainment, sports or travel we would find out that each specific audience and even each person within that audience has unique demands and interests.

Narrow casting is the reason new technologies evolve and are sought after….each new iteration usually offers more responsive features. E-Learning, responsive web sites, mobile device apps and social networks all contribute to enhance narrowcasting and allowing us to more closely engage with our customers and respond to their needs.  

The standard guidelines for advertising still apply regardless of the channel or medium you work in; as an audience, people are still driven by emotion, personal preferences, lifestyle and by gender & ethnic tendencies. Great creative, consistent messages, using multiple channels and frequency are still the main stays of any well thought out marketing plan aimed at a very small but loyal audience for your product or service. More than ever the evolution of technology is driving the growth behind new advertising mediums and leveling playing field between the large corporate entities and the small to medium size want-to-be businesses.

Those that seek out and engage with new strategies and ways of communicating with their clients have the most to gain in dominating their segment of the market.