Niche, not volume
<img The Long Tail diagram>
In his book The Long Tail, Chris Anderson takes a new look at the shape of the traditional marketing cycle or demand curve. Anderson says that we are beginning to shift away from a focus on ‘hit’ products and mass- markets at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail. As the costs of production and distribution fall, especially online, niche goods and services can be marketed to narrowly-targeted audience more profitably than ever before. The Long Tail refers to the orange part of the chart below, which shows a standard demand curve that could apply to any industry. The vertical axis is sales; the horizontal axis is products. The red part of the curve represents ‘hit’ products aimed at a mass-market. The orange part represents niche products. In the old days, it may not have been economically viable to service these niches, but this is where we can expect to see a lot of new growth.
The communications tools we need to reach niches are not broadcast advertising campaigns. That wouldn’t make sense. What is needed for niche campaigns is a narrow-cast, or even multi-cast approach, carefully targeted to engage a series of niche market communities.