Vampires, Werewolves, and Targeting Consumers

No, I’m not that obvious. I can hear you thinking now, “Duh – Everyone knows that Vampires and Werewolves have been pursing people (read: target consumers) for centuries!” While true, that is not where I was going. I am referring more to the phenomenonal resurgence of these monster movie legends in pop culture today. Not only is it mainstream in the form of the Twilight saga, but with TrueBlood and scores of similiar shows. This is way bigger than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Boris Karloff, or Tom Cruise could have ever imagined!

Then this past year, Werewolves were suddenly in the mix. Seemed like a “twist” to me, but for those that follow the ways of these creatures, apparently they often coexist and crosss paths; huh, who’da thunk it? All it took was one of the current reigning Vampire franchises to take the lead and everyone followed. So now you're asking yourself "So what?" and "What does this have to do with marketing and targeting consumers?”. The fact is that all of the movie companies, book publishers, toy manufacturers, you-name-it suppliers of whatever recognized a behavior and interest trend in the marketplace and are now riding the wave made up simply of like minded consumers. Just yesterday I was flipping though my 3 ba-zillion channels (and nothing is on) and ran across that movie from 1991 called “Silver Bullet” with Corey Haim and Gary Busey (it was a much better life for those 2 back then!) – it’s about a wheelchair bound kid who confronts the town Werewolf. Even old “products” get a boost when you have identifed the right audience.

So am I saying you should try to recognize the next cattle herd moment for marketing success? No – I am suggesting that you closely examine the behaviors and characteristics of your current clients. That could mean using Google Analytics on your website to capture browsing habits and click-through patterns. Or as previously discussed, it could mean looking at your clents purchase history and habits with you in terms of RFM (Recency Frequency Monetary) or even by enhancing your customer data with demographics or proprietary lifestage and lifestyle segmentation systems.

I look forward to your comments. If you would like to discuss any of these methods and how they can improve your marketing performance please contact me directly.