I have occasionally started an essay and left it incomplete... I guess I loose the chain of thoughts? Until it either the thought comes back or the next interesting thought captures my imagination the essay sits waiting for my attention. This essay is one of those...
Marketing has its origins in differentiation, the early Egyptians marked their cattle to ensure they could be located and identified. The concept developed into communicating uniqueness and then so. Modern marketing was about relevance, differentiation, excitement and more. It was a mass message we sent as marketers to INFLUENCE the consumer in choosing our brands over the competitive landscape. Gone are the days of Mass Marketing, today we are in the world of Segmented Marketing. Connecting, communicating, presenting, solving and listening to the consumers for what they liked how they used, why they chose what they chose and how can we enhance their experience.
The touch points have increased and so has communication (listening and conveying), the value propositions and the difference. Over the past 30 years marketers have feared private label yet they rarely have a robust understanding of what a disappearing ghost private label can be. No one has ever beaten back an enemy in a Guerrilla war especially since you don't even know who the real enemy is? As a strategist I have often thought of the challenge and the only truly sustainable solution is Segmenting the consumer to a Segment of ONE! UNI-MARKETING!
Niche products that do one and only one thing!! Do it better than any Private label! Change the rules of the game and create a new landscape for the brand wars.
This morning's -Today's Niche Marketing Is All About Narrow, Not Small from Advertising Age stoked my imagination to complete this essay.
Niching now
To harness the power of niche marketing to achieve your business objectives in the new economy, follow these principles:
- Position your brand as narrowly as is economically possible.
- Become the specialist that anticipates the needs of your target.
- Rapidly work with the target niche to co-innovate.
- Set as your goal such consumer centricity that the target niche will want to co-brand their identity with yours.
- Live by a higher standard of ethics.
- Embrace a business model and metrics that grow the most valuable assets of the new niched economy.
- Reap first-mover advantage by learning how to identify a niche of opportunity.
- Re-imagine your role as that of entrepreneurial founder of a special interest group.
- Forget push marketing; excel at pull marketing.
- Realize your brand is now "media" competing against all other media.
