Students of marketing learn that the days of mass marketing are long dead. The one-size-fits-all approach, aimed at bringing in as many customers as possible, was the way things were done decades ago. With this approach, a marketing campaign would be broadened to include as many people as possible. No attempt was made to target specific demographic segments.

Even the days of segmentation marketing are dead. Students of marketing would again tell you that this approach of dividing up the market into sub-groups and create messages or product and pricing variations to meet the demands of each subgroup worked for a while, may still work for some products and services, but does not represent the future of marketing.

Marketing has become more personalised because consumers would tell you that they have specific needs that other consumers do not. This means that traditional mass media are no longer useful for advertisers as they cannot target specific small consumer groups. On the other hand, social media can target individuals with messages specifically aimed at such individuals.

So where is the paradox in all this?

The 2024 MISCO survey on social media usage shows that 94% of respondents feel exposed to online advertising, up from 77% in 2017, and 61% are exposed to offline advertising, down from 85% seven years ago. This reflects the trends in marketing strategies adopted by businesses. However, consumers do not seem to like having adverts targeted towards them.

If we were as individualistic as we say we are in our tastes, we would not succumb to peer pressure in our purchasing

Consumers are now becoming increasingly aware of the fact that adverts can be targeted towards them on Facebook, Google and other platforms, based on their web browser history. This generally makes them feel uncomfortable.

Sixty-seven per cent of respondents stated that they feel very uncomfortable or rather uncomfortable with this. Just seven per cent of respondents feel very comfortable. Men are significantly less bothered about targeted adverts, feeling more at ease with the situation compared to women.

To the question as to which media they would prefer to watch/hear/read advertisements on, 60% mentioned offline advertising media and 57% mentioned online advertising. In 2017, 73% of respondents had mentioned offline media and 46% had mentioned online media.

And this is where the paradox lies. Although consumers expect marketing strategies to take care of their individual likes, dislikes, wants and needs, and online media can do that, they prefer offline media, even if marginally. And they are bothered by the knowledge that companies can target adverts specifically at them.

This is first accentuated by the fact that even purchasing habits present us with a paradox. Even though consumers seem to demand that brands meet their specific expectations, they seem to rush to buy products or services that are in fashion to be like everyone else.

If we were as individualistic as we say we are in our tastes, we would not succumb to peer pressure in our purchasing. We would not be wasting our time to find out what the so-called influencers are saying, such that we do not miss out on the latest fads.

Where does this leave marketing experts? They thought they got it right when they moved from mass marketing to segmentation marketing to micro marketing. They probably did, but it is not a simple linear movement as it is made to be. Psychologists need to get to work to explain this marketing paradox.