In the early 2000s, the marketing focus shifted from mass to one-on-one because we realised that audiences are not all like minded. But there was a major flaw with this approach. Individual communication at the time was extremely cost-intensive, which meant that brands started to reduce their audiences.

Behavioural economics and marketing science provide us with empirical evidence that we need to broaden reach and target the category. If you aren't yet familiar with these methods, a great starting place is Byron Sharp's book How Brands Grow.

We also learn from behavioural science that people are led by their hearts. Even when we think that we are making a logical, thought-through purchase decision, it is mostly our brain working overtime to justify what the heart wants.

So when we remember that audiences are not machines but groups of human beings then we must realise that brands need to connect through different emotions.

So as we enter this new decade, we need to remember to look at all the learnings and string them together rather than just focusing on the latest trend or buzzword. We need to be intensely careful that the trend of personalisation does not take us back to the era of one-on-one communication described earlier. We don't want to repeat past mistakes.

It is unclear who first said, "Understanding is deeper than knowledge. There are many people who know me but not many who understand me." This quote reminds us that we need to strive to understand the human beings that make up our markets in order to resonate.

There are many things that allow us to connect to emotions — names, interests and language are just a few to come to mind. Mass personalisation is by no means new and it has been a topic of conversation for quite a number of years already.

Here is an example that illustrates the concept of mass personalisation the best. This Coca-Cola campaign was particularly successful because it was customised it for each market and then continued to grow the story subsequently: 


And so it is with this in mind that personalisation has a place and a chance to make a real impact. Personalisation allows us to use technology — analytics, AI and machine learning to understand the humans that we are talking to and to adapt communication to the individual at scale.

And that is how we create this paradox of mass personalisation; we can aim to reach the entire category but still connect with each and every one of them individually.

For more information, visit www.mediashop.co.za. You can also follow the MediaShop on Facebook or on Twitter.