Connecting with fragmented customer segments.

• Author: Braun, Doug
• Position: DIGITAL MARKETING

MASS MARKETING HAS BEEN REPLACED BY MASS PERSONALIZATION. Rather than subscribing to a national identity forged by mass media and social norms, consumers are more likely to identify themselves as part of a social subset with shared interests, attitudes, behaviors and priorities.

Social media in particular has played a large part in the process, making it easier than ever for individuals to find and participate in both real and virtual communities that match the characteristics by which they define themselves--entrepreneur, activist, artisan and so forth. The need to connect with these multiplying consumer segments has added a new layer of complexity to the bank marketer's job.

How can digital signage help? Digital signage is a marketing vehicle that's ideally suited for delivering highly differentiated promotional messages at a very granular level. Because its costs are relatively fixed, regardless of how many marketing messages are presented, digital signage is an extremely efficient solution for capitalizing on market fragmentation by tailoring both onscreen advertising and value-added content to appeal to the characteristics, tastes and interests of carefully defined target audiences.

In implementing a strategy for using in-branch digital signage to drive product sales to a multiplicity of unique consumer constituencies, three considerations come into play:

* Insight: How are the type of customers we're trying to reach identified and understood?

* Productivity: How do we manage execution, targeting and delivering of multiple iterations of core product and service messaging?

* Performance: How can we enhance customer participation with our messages to ensure awareness, recall and action?

Big data can address each of these challenges. Geodemographic household segmentation analytics from Nielsen, Equifax, Experian and others have been providing market intelligence to banks for years. A systematic approach to applying this data to your digital signage initiative can significantly improve its effectiveness. Here's how:

* Insight: Consumer data will tell you about the ages, incomes and lifestyles of the population segments that are using your branches or...