MarketingInsideOut.com

The evolution of our mature marketplace combined with technological advances has not only put consumers firmly in control (as marketers we’ve heard this drum for quite sometime now), but has empowered us with more detailed data enabling us to micro-target messages, engage consumers with new levels of intimacy, and customize-to-order with small-batch manufacturing and new distribution options.

This seismic shift from one-size-fits-all marketing to millions of niche markets of self interest has major impact on the economic model we’re all working in regardless of the category in which we compete. It’s both a big challenge and big opportunity. A great opportunity in fact.

But understanding the nature of niche marketing today is vital in overcoming what is often the biggest barrier in developing a smart plan — concern over the economic viability of customization to small segments.

I read a great article last evening in AdAge about this very subject.

“Rather than equating niche with “small,” think “narrow.” As in narrowly targeting a group whose self interest/self concept is so clear that a marketer can offer something ultrarelevant and vastly different from alternatives. Then the scarcity principle allows the marketer to charge a premium, reaping higher margins.

When you expand the relevance and differentiation to multiple products and services (even information, experiences, networking and more), you gain share of wallet and can experience volume and growth that makes up for the narrowness of the target.

So what’s really new about the new niche marketing? It’s realizing that while our targets have to narrow, our definition of marketing communications has to broaden. Today, everything communicates what a brand stands for, all the time.”

To harness the power of niche marketing to achieve your business objectives in the new economy, follow these principles:

1. Position your brand as narrowly as is economically possible.
2. Become the specialist that anticipates the needs of your target.
3. Rapidly work with the target niche to co-innovate.
4. Set as your goal such consumer centricity that the target niche will want to co-brand their identity with yours.
5. Live by a higher standard of ethics.
6. Embrace a business model and metrics that grow the most valuable assets of the new niched economy.
7. Reap first-mover advantage by learning how to identify a niche of opportunity.
8. Re-imagine your role as that of entrepreneurial founder of a special interest group.
9. Forget push marketing; excel at pull marketing.
10. Realize your brand is now “media” competing against all other media.

Last night, I finally had a chance to read the entire Pew Internet Report released in early May titled A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users.

It’s an insightful report designed to classify Americans into different groups of technology users based on three dimensions of people’s relationship to information and communications technology (ICT) — Assets/Actions/Attitudes. If you haven’t read it, check it out …it’s worth a read and could be very helpful in your strategic planning endeavors.
Pew has segmented the audience into 3 broad groups and 10 specific segments:

• Elite Tech Users (31% of American adults) which includes Omnivores, Connectors, Lackluster Veterans, Productivity Enhancers
• Middle-of-the-Road Tech Users (20% of American adults) which includes Mobile Centrics, Connected but Hassled
• Few Tech Assets (49% of American adults) which includes the Inexperienced Experimenters, Light but Satisfied, Indifferents, Off the Network.

I was curious where I fit (I suspected, but wasn’t sure) so I took the quiz they had posted. I come out as an Omnivore — a group that represents 8% of the adult population. According to Pew’s typology, Omnivores have the most information gadgets and services, which they use voraciously to participate in cyberspace and express themselves online and do a range of Web 2.0 activities such as blogging or managing their own Web pages. Members of this group are confident in their ability to manage the flow of electronic information that is all around them.

This survey of over 4,000 adults represents the Pew Internet Project’s first comprehensive look at people’s evolving relationships to cyberspace at a time when accessing online content no longer necessarily means walking over to a weighty beige box and taking a seat.

This ambient advertisement campaign was launched in Australia to promote a toy sale at Target. Actors were hired for the job to act like big toys complete with oversized hands attached to their costumes. When these actors start performing it appeared as if these giant shaped hands were actually playing with them.

Hat tip to Erin for the idea.
Via Spluch>

I love going to baseball games and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work on one of the best baseball events around — the College World Series (or as we refer to it…the greatest show on dirt). I’ve spent the last 17 years of my career at Bozell and the company has had the honor of working with the local organizing committee, College World Series of Omaha, Inc., since the beginning of the Series in Omaha — back some 58 years ago. In fact one of our founders played a role in bringing the Series to Omaha.

It’s a lot of hard work. A lot of long hours. But it’s something I look forward to each and every year. Working with this client is continually gratifying because they are constantly looking for ways to make the event better and better. And watching the event come together and unfold is a thing of beauty — made possible, in large part, through the efforts of hundreds of passionate volunteers who are driven to create a fan experience like no other. Tens of thousands of fans come from all around the world to the event — year after year after year.

Starting today 64 teams are dreaming of The Road to Omaha, but only 8 will ultimately make the journey. For those fans that make their way to Rosenblatt and have a chance to see the faces of the excited players who succeeded in their quest on the Road to Omaha, it’s as close to nirvana as an avid baseball fan can get.

If you’ve never been to the Series, you should check it out. To find out all about it, visit the web site CWSomaha.com (yes we created the site as well as nearly all the promotional materials.)