Some marketing lessons from Gothic Metal

Rock Person Woman

Target segmentation can be really decisive in improving a company’s performance, especially from a sales perspective. But the subdivision of the clientele, and their breakdown into well-defined buyer personas, must nevertheless be able to transcend itself and go further, being able to identify user segments that had not been considered up to that point, and that could contribute decisively to the success or failure of a sales campaign, and also clearly influence all subsequent ones.

The most common mistake, from this point of view, is to believe that target segmentations should be unidirectional, and that they should target a precise, well-defined category from time to time: men or women of a certain age, with a certain job and income, characterized perhaps by very similar buying habits and an almost identical approach to life.

Yet another might be young people, itself divided into numerous subcategories based on the year they were born, such as Generation X, Generation Z, and the now mature Millennials. What few people seem to take into consideration, in this age of ubiquitous interconnectedness, is that sometimes segmentation strategies can also act cross-culturally, moving in a way that is not exactly linear, going on to intercept segments of users and possible consumers who also belong to two, three or even four macro-categories, sharing related, communicating and interconnected tastes, passions and interests.

Target segmentation

The identification of these peculiar audience segments is certainly not simple, because – unlike the usual segmentation procedures – it has to take into account multiple audience segments, each with its own specific interest and individual characteristics that make them unique. The challenge, from this point of view, is to identify those groups of users who share common, or at least related, interests and who could therefore become the target of the same advertising campaign.

To get to the point of identifying the recipients of such an action, it is usually necessary to precisely define buyer personas that belong to different categories, but share a particular habit or interest that would turn them into a fairly cohesive group on which to focus one’s persuasive communication activities.

In order to better understand the categories we are referring to, one could resort to an example drawn from the musical universe: fans of metal, and in particular those of gothic metal, do indeed seem to share particular stylistics with other people as well, who are not necessarily animated by a love of music, and who nevertheless seem to share a similar style, kindred tastes, and somewhat complementary approaches to life, as if they were distinct galaxies but belonging to the same universe.

Brands specializing in the sale of leather clothing, for example, could exploit this convergence of interests to offer their products to metal fans and those who appreciate gothic styles, decadent aesthetics, publications and novels characterized by dark tones, even reaching out to the BDSM community and lovers of extreme sexuality. All of these people belong to very specific niches, but in their lifestyles, clothing, and accessories one can certainly glimpse common characteristics that are very similar to each other, making them the perfect object for some promotional campaigns based on cross-target segmentation.

The example of metal

Keeping well in mind the example of metal and all possible passions related to it, brands will therefore have to practice to significantly expand their target audience monitoring, extending it to all those categories of people who share very similar and vaguely related lifestyles to those of their main target audience.

For those who deal with global passions, such as music, the task will be much easier, because the characteristics will be more or less the same regardless of the nation in which one operates: metal bands from Southeast Asia, such as those active in Thailand, for example, present the same styles and accessories as those from the West, with very little variation even in personal style.

Those who have been able to adequately address a segmented and extremely heterogeneous target audience, but united by a shared passion for fun, is certainly the world of online gambling and portals in which to find online casinos, where every player will be able to find an extensive list of sites where they can play serenely, in a totally safe way, thanks to electrifying and extremely addictive games, capable of satisfying even the most demanding tastes. The portal also offers convenient guides for all players, even the less experienced ones, who will thus be helped to familiarize themselves with all the main features of the games.

The strategy of diversification always brings unquestionable advantages, especially if it is governed by a single vision capable of broadening the horizons of brands.