This is Niche Marketing

It's targeting a specifically defined group of consumers with a product or service that caters towards their specific need. It's the literal opposite of Mass Marketing in which you promote your products or services to the entirety of the consumer population with no specific consumer characteristic, apart from their general desire to invest in the best, in mind.

Now, you might think: wouldn't it be better and be more inclusive to simply market to everyone instead of a specific group of people? Well, it's not to say that Mass Marketing is a bad thing when, in fact, it will most likely still remain as the primary marketing strategy around the globe.

Nevertheless, even if you end up marketing for the entire consumer population it doesn't automatically mean you're being inclusive. You may be opening up your products' or services' availability to anyone interested but not realizing the possibility that what your offering may not be suitable to everyone thus leaving out certain people.

With Niche Marketing, although you're narrowing down your target market, you're enabling inclusivity in the sense that these people left out by mass marketing or the people who don't usually fit in with the standard products or services that most brands provide can finally invest in something actually relevant to them. Focusing on that last bit, keep in mind that Niche Marketing is both for those with special or specific needs and those who have a preference over the quality of goods or services such as luxury.

Additionally, Niche Marketing tends to focus on a brand's value proposition especially since it needs to attract a specific group of customers rather than the entirety of the consumer population. This means thinking of specialized, captivating, and possibly out-of-the-box ways of establishing their brand in order to answer the basic question of: "Why should you specifically choose us?" On the other hand, Mass Marketing tends to focus more on increasing a brand's value share by tapping into as many people within the consumer population as possible. 

Simply put, Mass Marketing focuses more on their overall profit while Niche Marketing is firstly all about creating a uniquely specific brand display.

^{Photo by Melanie Deziel on Unsplash} 

Niche Marketing Advantages

Brand Loyalty 
It’s the ultimate advantage — creating a certain kind of Brand Loyalty that you won't get with Mass Marketing. First and foremost, since you'll be targeting a certain consumer group, you're bound to develop products or services that may not be easily found elsewhere as it's specifically catered towards a specific need or preference. This alone already plants the seeds of loyalty for your brand as its mission is to make people with these specificities finally feel seen and heard.

When it comes to your marketing strategies, they'll obviously be uniquely specified towards the very group of consumers you chose to target which then waters these seeds of loyalty. Your target buyers will now be enticed to check what your brand has to specifically offer them and if it's worth their while. Once they like what they see, their next move is to make a purchase in which they may not even mind paying a little more than the average given the goods or services' rarity in the market.

Should what you offer pass their quality standards, expect these seeds of loyalty to grow into actual full-time loyal customers who will repeatedly come back given your brand's genuine understanding of them and their specific need or preference. In return, make sure your brand maintains or enhances its excellent quality in all aspects such as what’s being offered, customer service, as well as delivery efficiency for guaranteed customer satisfaction and loyalty all year round. 

Reduced Competition 
This is the next advantage. You're niche so you're already not like mainstream brands since what you're offering is specifically special as compared to the rest in the market thus decreasing the chance of having many or any brand competition.

Increased Brand Credibility, Visibility, and Relevancy
This leads to an increase in brand credibility, visibility, and relevancy. Given your brand specificity, you're basically marketing a certain expert credibility as well. Your target market will definitely expect deep knowledge and understanding with the specific need or preference you've chosen to highlight in your goods or services. Which is why it's important to make sure that you've really researched into the niche market you’ve entered and have room for improvement to earn more of this credibility and become a go-to brand for whatever it is you're offering. 

In terms of visibility, it's all about word-of-mouth both in person and digitally. Just like with Mass Marketing, gaining the attention, trust, and loyalty of your target audience will lead to them spreading positive reviews followed by more people of the same needs or mindset in checking your brand out. Uniquely captivating promotions may also place you under the consumer radar especially as we live in the world of fast news thanks to social media.

Meanwhile, relevancy comes in being one of the few brands or only brand that offers those specific goods or services. As we all know, these days, people tend to invest in things that will actually be of use in their lives so efficiently marketing what your niche audience specifically needs to see, hear, and have is bull's-eye for brand relevancy.

Focused Marketing Strategies
Lastly, with Niche Marketing, you can create more focused marketing strategies. Basically: truly knowing your specific target demographic + quality and creativity = focused marketing plans and contents which will work wonders for your brand and make it stand out for the better. Not to mention, it’s more cost-effective as you don’t need to create a mass plan for the entire consumer population.

^{Photo by Trung Do Bao on Unsplash}

Examples of Niche Marketing

1. Lefty's 

   • An online store specially marketed for left-handed people which makes up only 10% of the population in the world. Whether you’re a lefty or not, we’re well-aware of the challenges left-handed people have faced throughout history and still face today. With Lefty’s, they’ve created an online sanctuary where left-handed people are celebrated through the availability of several goods specially designed just for their specific need! 

2. Henning 

   • It’s no doubt that those within the larger side of physicality are still looked down upon by plenty as being an unacceptable and unwanted body figure. In comes Henning which was founded by Lauren Chan, a former fashion editor and plus-size model, in the mission to make more plus-size women feel included, become confident, and accept themselves for who they are through ready-to-wear women’s collections sized 12 to 24. Apart from the plus-size niche, Henning also targets the luxury niche with their pieces.

3. LUSH 

   • Although this British cosmetics brand is marketed to the general public, it’s also niche in a way that it markets towards anyone who is interested in trying out or switching to fresh, cruelty-free, handmade beauty products whose range is 95% vegan. Lush is all about ethical beauty and has been marketing, since its establishment in 1995, towards those who wish to stay in the beauty game but by using cleaner products instead. 

4. Byemeat 

   • This recently launched food delivery app and website specifically caters towards vegans in the Philippines. Although veganism isn’t an unknown concept to most people these days, vegan choices in the country are still very much limited as compared to the West. Byemeat is here to provide a wide variety of meals that cater to Filipino vegans’ needs and cravings. 

In Conclusion

It's important to remember that, although you can centralize your entire brand towards Niche Marketing, even brands which started with Mass Marketing can incorporate the former into their promotional realm. It's definitely possible to do the best of both worlds with these two marketing strategies as long as you know how to properly and responsibly execute both. 

At the end of the day, both share the same goal: to reel in customers and make profit!

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