Organizational Character

The drawback to segmentation in the present day is that there is far less separation between the segments than there used to be.   An advertisement may be intended for a certain audience, but there is a greater likelihood that others will see it as well, and this becomes a problem when there is a high level of disparity in the messages that firms are sending to different market segments.

The problem is further compounded by the perseverance of memory - in particular, digital memory has a much longer lifespan than organic memory, and advertising messages that were sent a decade (or much longer) ago are still lingering in archives.   Marketers count on customer laziness - "who's going to look at what we sent last week, it's probably already been deleted."  But even without digital assistance, customers have a long memory.

Putting the two together, brands have a significant problem: they must have integrity.   While it should still be possible for a brand to tailor its messages to specific audiences, and to change its messages over time, the disparity cannot be as extreme as it sometimes is in the present day.

This should not be an unreasonable expectation, as integrity is a quality we expect and value in human beings and many of those who have it are able to maintain it effortlessly: simply be honest to yourself and others, and your integrity will follow.  It's only those people who put on difference faces, who behave very differently at work than they do at home, that need to put effort into making sure they provide the same information and tell the same lies to whatever group they happen to be with at the time ... and live in fear that people from the two groups will mix.

In fairness, organizations are at a disadvantage, because they consist of many people and the people in the roles that govern communication change frequently.    So while an individual person has a single brain and a single set of memories, a company lacks that central repository and the ability to maintain consistency without effort.  Or perhaps that's being too generous?  Given that filing systems are also computerized, maintaining a digital memory of past communications is possible, and not even that difficult to do, though it does take a modicum of effort to consult them and consider whether a new or segmented message is in agreement with the history.

It might also be considered that organizations often have a mercenary agenda, such that they will say anything it takes to get what they want from other people (employees and customers) - but that's really not an excuse for being false.   People often have mercenary agendas and seek to get things from others, and this has never been an excuse.  If anything, people are circumspect when they are aware that their motives may be questioned, and it's entirely fair to hold brands to the same standard.