Is Marketing Segmentation Obsolete?

In the early 2000’s, in an effort to compete many banks moved away from segmentation to saturation marketing using the wide net approach; “Cast a wide net and catch whatever you can.” Segmentation is the process of dividing the market into groups of common characteristics and tailoring your marketing efforts to each group. However, in the era of free checking many banks moved away from the idea of marketing segmentation to mass marketing. Is marketing segmentation obsolete in the banking industry?

Of course one also has to give some credence to this change, since it is also possible to define the target market too narrowly. When this happens there might not be a big enough market to achieve profitability. The question still remains, however, is market segmentation obsolete and is the wide net approach the more advantageous path