Niche Marketing Do’s and Don’ts
Making products/services that already have patrons in the market and enough competitors that pose a threat to your business? Marketing your product/service in a unique, one-off way could be one of the winning factors of your campaign. For example - if you're a company that sells breakfast cereals usually attractive to children, and market research says adults love cereal as a breakfast option too, you've found a potential new market.
However, adults don't buy it because of excessive sugar. By focusing your marketing campaign on foods from the range that don't have as many additives or sugars could work out in making the brand visible to an entirely new market, but not without a lot of market testing first.
Niche marketing encompasses just that - identifying a subset of your market, understanding their requirements, chalking up a marketing strategy that's specifically designed to address and attract them and finally win over their business. In some cases, niche marketing works better than a broad campaign. We show you a couple of ways in which how niche marketing can do wonders for your brands - irrespective of whether or not you have competitors that pose a threat to your business.
Before you can go ahead with a marketing campaign that focuses on a specific set of audience, it is essential to do complete research as to why, how, what and when this is required. In the example cited above - the need for a new campaign arose because a new market emerged with a different set of needs as compared to the existing market - it also warranted the fact that this new market has the substantial requirement of a new product that caters to their specific needs. Going through thorough market research - irrespective of how hard it is imperative, as, when a campaign is launched highlighting a particular product/service your company has to offer - it occurs as the only solution available to their unique, but the real problem or need.
An excellent way to go about in marketing, even more so in niche marketing campaigns, is to have a clear idea as to who your end customer is. The more details you have as to what your buyer's persona is - what their likes/dislikes, lifestyle, purchasing power, temperament, personality, job-styles are, the better it helps you draft a great campaign to cater to this specific set of individuals, with unique interests that only your company provides to. A brand that has nailed this down to the T, and has managed to garner a loyal customer base, is the beauty brand Lush Cosmetics.
The brand launched at a time when the Zero waste movement was picking up in the USA, with people ditching single-use plastic straws, takeout containers, plastic bags, and other lifestyle products that came packed in plastic. At the same time, a wave of au naturale beauty hit the USA, where people understood the harmful effects of chemicals in their beauty and grooming products - and took to natural methods like baking soda and Apple cider vinegar for their bathing purposes. Lush came in catering to this specific set of people and addressed every single thing the zero waste movement crusaders craved for - minimal packaging on the products, a recycling program for the plastics, non-boring colorful products that were gentle on the skin with no harmful chemicals and most importantly - products that made people happy about using them. Lush as a brand remains a cult favorite among all the people not just interested in saving the planet, but also skincare and haircare junkies - a broader market.
Another pointer when it comes to making a killer niche marketing campaign is to keep in mind that this product/service doesn't necessarily interest the everyday customer. Just like the product/service is tailor-made for a specific buyer persona, so does the marketing campaign have to be designed and created to attract this particular individual group. A mass marketing campaign directly doesn't work - and could also backfire, since most people would not be able to relate to this specific campaign.
Niche marketing campaigns help your brand analyze how to cut through the competition that already exists - a typical blue ocean/red ocean story. As a company, one would always want to be in the blue ocean space, where there's no competition from other brands - niche marketing helps you be the leader in one specific vertical, a solution for which ONLY YOU can offer.
