Marketing & the Wedding Industry

At my internship yesterday, I was browsing the latest marketing news. I came across an article from the American Marketing Association website that I found really interesting. Being a stereotypical 21 year old, I love weddings. I love talking about them, attending them, and even dreaming about one of my own. This article focuses on how the wedding industry calls for a lot of marketing opportunities, and for a wedding-lover like myself, it's a good read.

According to the article, consumers want to be overloaded with marketing messages during their wedding planning stages. I find this to be extremely true. This summer, I spent a lot of time with one of my cousins who was planning her wedding. At her bachelorette party, it seemed like all we talked about was wedding plans. Many of the girls who attended the party had recently gotten married, or were planning weddings of their own. With that said, they had A LOT to say. From details as little as stamps for invitations, to big details like venues, these girls did not run out of things to talk about it. And that just goes to show that this is a huge industry for marketers to jump into.

Why are weddings a good opportunity for marketers? For starters, I'd say a wedding involves some of the most high-involvement purchases a consumer will make in their lifetime. This plays a big role into why consumers are willing to listen and open their eyes to marketing. As the article stated, there are over 2 million weddings every year in the United States.

I found it interesting when the article said that brides/grooms are receptive to hyper-target messaging (highly selective messages to specific groups of people) and that they are more open to behavior tracking that supports it. Because people are so excited and highly involved in planning their wedding day, they find all the information presented to them about weddings to be interesting and useful. I think this shows a positive side of behavioral targeting that some consumers fail to see- because I think it often has an "annoying" reputation. I know many people who find it annoying and inconvenient to have random ads pop up on their Facebook page- but what if those ads were for things that could help consumers? In this case, marketers are sending helpful ideas to consumers that want to soak up that information.

The article also related to our course material when it mentioned the wide range of touchpoints there are in a wedding. It is said that engagements typically last 9-12 months, leaving a huge amount of time for planning. These 9-12 months can have nearly an endless amount of touchpoints- from wedding food to photography to dresses. Marketers can jump in at nearly any of these areas and reach their targeted consumers. The article also mentioned that re-targeted ads with all of the data on wedding consumers are very relevant/personalized, resulting in a high level of consumer engagement. In addition to touchpoints, this topic can connect back to our course discussion of emotional involvement. This is an industry that involves high-involvement purchases for a very sentimental event. So, marketers can take advantage of that sentimental value by sending messages that consumers will feel an emotional connection to and engage.

Overall, I found this article to be extremely interesting and also relevant to our course material!