Niche Market or Dead End?
Seth Godin’s post on the inanity of the American consumer - as illustrated by the combo toaster/egg poacher/ham warmer - highlights the challenges not only of the holiday season but of marketing in general. How do we differentiate our products and/or services in a way that the customers will value (and buy more than once)? And, are we thinking “niche” when in reality heading toward a “dead-end?”
For example, does anybody really need any of the things sold in the Sharper Image catalog? And, how many patents are issued every year for products that nobody would buy? Also, it’s not just us Americans - one of the best “what were they thinking?” examples is the solar purse from the UK.
I don’t have any brilliant answer to this (and thank goodness I’m not a toaster product manager) - but perhaps if we focused more on substance and good old-fashioned customer service and less on gimmicks…hmmm…
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November 28th, 2005 at 12:07 pm
Well, just as I was scoffing at the egg/toaster thing….I thought the purse with a light at the bottom was genius!
November 28th, 2005 at 7:42 pm
You can only buy so many ties and fruitcakes. Which reminds me of a conversation a couple of years ago with a friend starting a company. When asked about his target segment he replied “Stupid people with lots of money”.
November 28th, 2005 at 8:47 pm
I think it was George Carlin who said, “If you nail two things together that nobody has ever nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you.” I think many product manufacturers are so desparate to differentiate their offerings from everybody else’s that they apply that Carlin School of Product Development to what they do, with all kinds of peculiar results. Sometimes, it really does seem like, in the war between novelty and quality, novelty is winning out. I’m not sure if that says something about consumers or if it says something about those product developers. But I certainly agree that a back to quality-plus-service basics approach is better than gimmicks any day.
November 29th, 2005 at 9:35 am
Ah, but isn’t there just one fruitcake in the world that we keep passing around
Granted, I’m in a Pollyanna/zen mode today - but here’s a wacky idea - why don’t we do things like buy a water buffalo at Heifer International or some such? We Americans really don’t need any more “stuff” (another classic Carlin rant/monologue re “stuff.”)
And, yes, the “stupid ones” are always a potentially great target market. (I actually put that in a presentation once back during my Corporate America days - for internal merriment only, of course.)