{"id":313,"date":"2016-06-19T18:12:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-19T12:42:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myblog.medtreatserve.com\/?p=313"},"modified":"2023-11-06T12:18:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-06T06:48:11","slug":"5-steps-niche-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/braintannica.com\/blog\/5-steps-niche-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Steps To Niche Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Niche<\/a>Niche is defined as a subset of market\u00a0on which a specific product is focused. Niche marketing\u00a0focuses\u00a0on that subset of market which\u00a0is either\u00a0underserved or is overpriced.\u00a0Niche marketing aims to\u00a0develop\u00a0an\u00a0alternative product or service that caters to\u00a0unserved need of market. The\u00a0more granularly you define a\u00a0target market, better chance you stand to unearth a Niche.\u00a0It is like digging an\u00a0Inch-Wide and Mile-Deep<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both market incumbents and newbies can develop a niche market. While at one extreme a retail behemoth like\u00a0Walmart<\/em>\u00a0has created a Niche by offering \u2018Lowest Price of the Day\u2019 to its bargain-minded shoppers; at the other extreme a healthcare aggregator startup company called\u00a0Lybrate<\/em>\u00a0has developed a platform to connect doctors to patients via their online platform.<\/p>\n

While creating a niche in your business, the 2 most important criteria to assess are\u00a0target market dynamics<\/strong>\u00a0and your\u00a0product\u2019s attributes<\/strong>. So let us see how to go about developing a Niche product or service. Essentially, there are 5 critical steps to develop a niche.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0 Know your market. Who am I selling to?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first step to creating a niche is buyer\u00a0personification<\/em>. Can you distinctly paint a picture in your mind about your ideal customer? Who is your customer? What\u2019s her age? Is she self-employed or a dependent?; How big is her family? Where does she live? What is her social circle like? How conscience is she about health of her family? How much does she spend a month on her family\u2019s health?<\/p>\n

Create your Buyer’s\u00a0Persona<\/h5>\n

\u2018Meet Mrs. Kalki Sharma. She is 35 years of age, married, self-employed woman with 2 kids studying in 4th<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and 6th<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>grade at the nearby school. Her husband works with an IT company at a mid-level position. They live together with Kalki\u2019s in-laws in an up-market city center. Kalki is very conscious about her family\u2019s health and has taken a health insurance for all the members of the family. She is very well connected on social media and likes her evening strolls with their neighbors. Most of their health spends are in buying medicines for her in-laws from nearly pharmacy shop and rare visits to hospital for general check-ups\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, there you go. Here is your Buyer\u2019s Persona. Buyer\u2019s persona must resonate well with your average customers.<\/p>\n

You may ask, how did creating a Buyer\u2019s persona help me in creating a niche? The answer to that is that by defining the Buyer\u2019s persona, you lend a laser-guided focus on\u00a0who<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0what<\/em>\u00a0to sell.\u00a0Bottom line is not to be everything to everyone, especially so if you are a young company, a startup.<\/p>\n

Just\u00a0segmentation is not enough to create a Niche<\/h5>\n

Although the market segmentation is very essential to create a niche, it is not enough. It is not enough to know just the basics \u2013 age, income status, marital status etc.\u00a0Niche marketing requires a more granular look at the business<\/a> and the evolving market trends. You need to dice the market segments further to create \u201cmicro markets\u201d\u00a0and then redeploy resources (manpower, sales reps, marketing budgets etc.) to cater to specific demands of a micro market.<\/p>\n

A successful Niche marketing strategy always has micro market at the core of its execution. And micro market needn\u2019t be a physical region; it can even be a service offering. Creating a product-oriented micro market helps to separate wheat-from-the-chaff and create a distinct value offering.<\/p>\n

For instance, Columbia Asia Hospital’s\u00a0Integrated Digestive, Liver and Cancer Care (IDLCC)<\/a>\u00a0Program is a good example of a Niche product. The program with its unique integrated care approach has enforced a distinctive apple-to-orange comparison in the minds of prospective patients thereby creating a Niche offer.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether you aspire to be a Bloomingdales (premium fashion brand) or a Myntra (affordable fashion brand),\u00a0a Bumrungrad Hospital\u00a0(Thailand’s tertiary care hospital) or Aravind Eye\u00a0Hospital in India delivering free\u00a0healthcare to poor, you must identify a well-defined market to sell a well-endowed product.<\/p>\n

This takes us to the next step in creating a Niche,\u00a0your Product<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. Unpeel benefits. What am I selling?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Product<\/a>To create a Niche needs a focused market and product driven approach and to sustain a Niche requires a laser-guided focus on unearthing and inventing sellable features. These features not necessarily have to be in the product itself. Instead, they could be the way the product is designed, produced, marketed, distributed, packaged or even serviced. That means a marketer can create a Niche across its\u00a0Distinctive Value Chain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the product-side while creating a niche, the adage that fits perfectly is that \u2018God lies in details\u2019<\/p>\n

You must identify the hidden inner benefits of your product, an offering that is distinct and provides solution to customer\u2019s unresolved problems. A solution that forces an apple-to-orange comparison and helps you create a USP for your offering. That is a true service Niche.<\/p>\n

What do\u00a0I have\u00a0that other’s don’t?<\/h5>\n

For you to create a niche, you must have a granular level understanding of your customer\u2019s problems and how your product can address their problem. You should probe about:<\/p>\n