I found the material in this week's section on micro-segmentation to be fascinating and especially noteworthy, given I am in the mass production industry as part of P&G. We certainly have been working to change our direction, but any change this fundamental will certainly take time. The Bloomberg link below does a nice job outlining the challenges P&G and other legacy mass marketers face as they follow the increasing segmentation. As someone that currently works in manufacturing, where high fixed costs are everywhere, this change to more specialized and targeted products can be frustrating as these large plants work best when they produce a lot of a certain type of product. We do not have the ability to customize your baby's diaper with their name and favorite Sesame Street character. This is a paradigm shift forces a transition of how our work in manufacturing is done. Many close to the manufacturing operation view this with skepticism as shorter runs and higher change overs drives up costs through downtime and increases in unplanned stops. However, it is the right shift long-term as it will enable P&G to have a broader portfolio of products with many markets vs. the one large mass market.
http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2004-07-11/the-vanishing-mass-market
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