NEW YORK ? A Reframe the Brand executive at the third annual Total Market Summit said that mobile and social media are useful communication and connection channels to leverage when undertaking advertising initiatives with a broad market approach. 

During the ?State of the Total Market Industry? session, the executive discussed the history of the total market movement, culminating with advice for brands seeking to implement its philosophies in present day. The ubiquity of smartphones and social media will also help marketers integrate total market principles into their branding initiatives, as masses of consumers of all demographics can easily be reached simultaneously.

?Often times brand will say they can?t reach everyone,? said Jeffrey L. Bowman, founder and president of Reframe the Brand, New York. ?After we go through the particular case with them using the total enterprise market program and get to the marketing plan, we get to the media part, what happens in terms of how to buy for that one-to-one connection.

?That?s where mobile and digital come in.?

Introducing new principles
The total market philosophy approaches marketing with a notion that brands should be trying to target every individual market under a collective and comprehensive strategy. If content is too segmented to a particular audience, the marketer runs the risk of alienating many multicultural consumers that find it difficult to connect with the material.

?[Reframe the Brand is] an association in origin and what we are trying to do is bring some different principles to the areas of marketing and communications,? Mr. Bowman said.

It has taken approximately sixty or seventy years for the marketing industry to arrive at a point where conversations about total market approaches can be had. McKinsey and Company was the first organization to develop this concept.

?Our mission as it relates to Reframe is help brands and businesses create a new industry vertical to reflect the marketplace,? Mr. Bowman said. ?The idea is that we?re not a total market industry organization, we are not a multicultural organization, we are a business acceleration platform.?

As millennials continue becoming key players in the workplace, mobile and social media will take a larger role in the total market approach. However, to get to that place, furthering education about building communities is paramount.

Brands should start from the inside out rather than the outside in.

While much of the current buzz surrounding mobile concerns itself with personalization and segmentation for users, mobile also has the ability to be powerful when taking a broader market approach. Its sheer reach as a communication channel enables technology-savvy marketers to be among the first to better reach ethnic audiences with more relevant material.

Mobile and total market
Mobile will enable brands to better reach the general market of consumers. Reframe advises marketers to test and learn if they want to apply ambition from a brand perspective to reach the total addressable market.

Eventually, they will see more positive customer responses, thanks to A/B testing and other methods.

The total market principle helps organizations talk to consumers in a very different and more relevant manner.

?You want to be less about the channel and more about the experience,? Mr. Bowman said. ?When you talk about how to reach [consumers], often times mobile is that connection.?

Final Take
Alex Samuely, staff writer on Mobile Marketer, New York