Sidestepping Segmentation is an essay for my intro to marketing class

1. Sidestepping segmentation
By: Joshua Smith
The commercials on the television blast loudly in the background as Debbie
Groom, 51, prepares a brown bag lunch for her 18-year-old son, Derek. "Impossible is
nothing," says a cool, calm and collected voice on the TV. Debbie, however, pays little
attention to the commercial as she packs her son’s brown paper lunch with a turkey
sandwich, a bag of Oreo cookies, a peanut butter Power bar, and a can of Pepsi. "I don't
really notice all the brands and commercials that I see everyday," she begins, “It’s like I
am becoming numb or maybe just immune to them all." "I don’t even bother with
advertisements and commercials on the TV anymore," Debbie proclaims, “When my
show goes on a commercial break I either press mute or take a little break myself.”
"These days I leave the commercials to my son while I go online and research anything
worth buying. I even have the option of buying things at my computer desk if I want."
Debbie is not alone. She is becoming part of a growing trend of individual marketing or
mass customization which allows each customer to discover for themselves what a
product is about and customize it to their liking. According to www.Wikipedia.org mass
customization, in marketing, manufacturing, and management, is the use of flexible
computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Michael Dell, owner
of Dell computers, is widely acknowledged as the person who started the mass
customization trend. While other companies were selling a single model of a computer,
Dell brought to life the idea that people could customize their own computers according
to their own wants and needs. Now days, customers can bypass all the fine print of
television ads and find out everything there is to know about a company, a brand and its
product with a click of their mouse. Thus giving them the ultimate power of making a
final decision on what to buy and why. Marketing tactics of price, promotion, place and
product are being overridden by a better informed customer. Americans today see
many forms of advertising on a daily basis. From driving a Honda down the freeway past
Nike billboards to reserving a hotel online with AOL at Orbtiz, marketing is everywhere
around us and is woven into everything we do. For most consumers like Debbie, when
ads deceive them they find a way to defend themselves from untrustworthy commercials
and sales promotions. Other consumers may lose all loyalty to the advertised brand and

2. search for the closest replacement brand that can satisfy their void. But luckily, the
coming of new innovative technology, interactive communications and production
machinery is aiding mass customization to narrow the odds that customers will buy an
unsatisfying product.
Interactive communications such as email and the internet have given customers
an outlet to consumer reports, joining discussion forums and acts as a connection to
various suppliers, users and product analysts. Based on the Yankelovich MONITOR(R)
2004, an annual study of consumers, the self-assured and demanding mindset of the
affluent masses has shown the necessity that customization is becoming. Companies of a
wide variety of industries are opening their eyes to the fact that customization is no
longer just an added convenience but a growing necessity. Nike’s website offers
customized shoes, M&M offers customized packages, color coded candy and even Apple
offers a personalized carving to the back of their ipod. Mass customization is bringing
back a more one-to-one relationships between customers and businesses that resembles
the tailor made market of the pre-industrial times.
“You don’t have to be my mom to appreciate what these companies are doing,”
jokes Derek, “I have been a mass customization enthusiast ever since I learned how to
order a pizza.”
Cited works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_customization
h
http://www.123helpme.com/search.asp?text=Advertising&page=1&sort=length
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/ebrc/publications/res_papers/1999_06.pdf
http://www.itpna.com/Vision/2001/010523%20Mass%20Customization-The%20Dell%20Way.htm