One size NEVER fits all

Clothing manufacturers sometimes resort to offering their wares in “one size fits all”. While this approach does reduce inventory challenges, it is a disservice to the customers. What are the chances that a woman who is 5’1” and 110 lbs will fit into the same size as a woman who is 5’8” and 155 lbs? Even if they were both willing to wear it, odds are that neither would be truly satisfied.

The same concept applies to marketing. Your chances for success are much higher if you segment your audience and focus your marketing on specific targets with messages that are tailored to address their interests and concerns. Simply consider the following different audiences:

• the youth market vs. the boomers
• single people vs. families
• French-speaking Canadians vs. people living in Paris, France

Even if the same product was targeting each of these groups, the way in which you approach them — through message, language, channel, etc. — should be different in order to achieve the best response to your marketing efforts.

Recently, I received unaddressed admail from Reno Depot. For those of you who don’t know, Reno Depot operates home renovation stores in 16 cities in Quebec. So what is wrong with this picture? While their store is less than 10 miles from where I live, it is in another province. Another problem — the DM piece was entirely in French.

Now, it could be that they were trying to build their customer base in Ontario. Ottawa is a fairly bilingual city, but the majority of residents speak English, so it is likely that many people who received the piece would not be able to read it.

What they did get right? As a home owner, I am part of their target market. I live in an area of older homes without many rental units. But with limited French, I was unable to take away anything from the copy that would pique my interest.

Sadly, this is mostly an example of what not to do. What should they have done?

• Some sort of enticement to visit the store — there is a Home Depot only a few miles away from me and crossing the river is a bit of a psychological barrier.
• Map to store location — it’s not in my neighbourhood so I might not know how to get there.
• Bilingual copy — I will need to understand what you’re saying in order to respond to it.

It’s hard to say what Reno Depot was trying to accomplish, perhaps it was just shotgun approach to the entire Ottawa-Gatineau area. With the availability of targeting DM down to a postal carrier route, it is a shame that Reno Depot didn’t take a more direct approach by segmenting their market and using more specific messaging and language to reach their audience.