Greg Stielstra (PyroMarketing) has post today called Sell Out to Your Niche.
It’s a good post touching on a couple of the themes from his book PyroMarketing. He says that people are afraid to try it because it requires narrowly focusing on their niche…at the expense of other “prospects.” He says that, “they mistakenly believe that a product with a less specific appeal will attract more general interest.”
This is nothing new or earth-shattering. Businesses are scared of doing the difficult chore of focusing on their best customers because they feel that not catering to everyone is leaving business on the table. The opposite is usually true, but I understand where the fear comes from.
Then, Greg goes on to say something that I read and re-read and it really hit home. He says that companies will say, “If we can make that women’s book less feminine, then it will appeal to men.” The point that drives it home for me is his summary of that thinking where he says, “If you want men, make your product masculine, not less feminine.”
Exactly.
When has doing something a little bit less ever made a product/business/person successful? This, to me is what cost John Kerry the election in ’04. Regardless of your political preferences, you have to admit that the bulk of his platform was that he was the “Anti-George Bush.” Basically, he said that if you don’t like George Bush, vote Kerry. Not because of his qualifications, or what he is doing, but because he’s not Bush.
In a business that is wholly driven by emotion, saying that you’re not as much of something as the competition will never get you anywhere.
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True. This is where CPB has misstepped with VW.
Comment by Zeek February 27, 2007 @ 5:24 pmI always think of VW as a feminine brand, and CPB went opposite with the unpimp and fast campaigns. They took a voice and although they replicated the look gave it a gender makeover, for the worse. It was too radical a departure from the established to not feel like a one off. Too much of something can be ot such a good thing either.
I hope this will make my John Kerry stocks go up so I make some money on it
http://www.prediction-markets.info/rd.php?language=en&wordid=76
Comment by waitmyturn22 March 14, 2007 @ 4:57 pm