Demassification and Sales: Selling to the masses through Individualization.

There are at least 9 million ways to customize a Mini Cooper.

This is due to the fact that, over the years, consumers have grown accustom to choice. As a result of the assortment of choice available to consumers, there has been an increase in competition, wherein, it is increasingly difficult to sell a product to consumers on the basis of price or convenience. The sales team of a business must constantly be aware of the characteristics that consumers are searching for in a product. One of the responses to this consumer demand has been, demassification.

Understanding Demassification

Demassification can be defined as changing a formerly large organisation, process or system into smaller entities aimed at pursuing more easily defined homogeneous groups For example, a car manufacturer can be divided into smaller occupation or product based entities with greater autonomy. Therefore, where the sales department previously needed to consult a number of bureaucratic steps to obtain approval for a project, in a demassified environment, the department may create, implement and monitor the progress of a project with relative autonomy.

The Volkswagen group demonstrates the benefits of demassification. The car manufacturer owns ten car brands, each with a number of product lines and competing in numerous related markets. The autonomy of the various brands enables the VW group to remain competitive in the market segments they pursue. For example, the technology of the latest generation VW Polo has enabled, its sister-company Audi, to develop the Audi A1. The platform, including gearbox, engine and other underpinnings, through which the Audi A1 is built, are identical to that of the VW Polo. One might ask, why would VW and Audi duplicate a car? The answer is simple. It is to enable Audi customers to customize their cars according to their individual preferences.

The result is that upon purchase of a new vehicle, Audi customers receive a long options list, wherein they can indicate the type of features they would like their car to have. The features vary from heated seats to air ventilators with an aluminium finish. Due to this high level of customization, no one Audi A1 is exactly the same as the next, while the same cannot be asserted for VW Polo (a more standardized vehicle). A key disadvantage of demassification is that it is more costly to implement. Vehicles on a standardized production line are less costly to produce, while tailoring vehicles adds costs to the production process. This disadvantage is mitigated by the fact that consumers are willing to pay a premium for an individualized car.

VW Polo

Audi 1

The phenomenon of demassification is also present in other industries such as the, newspaper, radio and Satellite TV. Increasingly, consumers are looking individualized media, such as newspapers that are relevant to their town, radio shows that they can access at anytime (i.e. podcasts) and the ability to choose which TV show they watch. In the media industry, demassification has spawn the rise of the Video on Demand segment and Internet radio among other media sub-segments.

Sales are moving towards individualization

A company's sales team must be aware of these changes in order to be better enabled to sell in the changing market. Therefore there are number of elements that a sales team must be cognizant of in a demassified market, these include:

1. Rising Customer Expectations: due to increased competition, customers have access to greater options at competitive prices. Consequently, their expectations product and value are gradually increasing.

2. Customers must be part of product development. When developing a new product line or improving an existing one, the sales department along with other departments must work with the customer to determine their preferences.

3. Variety is important. The product must be have add-on features that will enable customers to tailor the product according to their preferences.

4. Autonomy. Working in a demassified market entails working with relatively more autonomy than a standardized market. This is because the sales force must be able to try new selling methods without the burden of bureaucracy.

5. Rapid Change and Risk. A demassified market can be characterized by fast paced change. In other words, the preferences of consumers change constantly. The sales force must create a channel through which to gauge market needs, such as quarterly research or consumer feedback through social media. Thereafter the sales force must implement changes to exceed consumer expectation and bare the risk inherent in fast paced decision making.

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