Ads 2
Commitment, though, is one of the most essential parts of the marketing puzzle. Committing to a brand identity isa must—and so is committing to do the work involved in building that out into a bigger story and getting deep withthose your brand is designed to serve.You must consistently execute on your promise, unique selling point, and identity.As we’ve seen already, casting a broad net, or going for the cheap shocks of guerilla marketing, is for thetraditional marketers who feed the media machine with very little return.
What we are writing here is a song that aselect group of people will sing in the marketplace on our behalf.We’re now going to look at segmenting—or creating a niche—in our marketing to drive effectiveness even furtherand make our brand work powerfully for the long term.
MACRO MARKETING
There are two ways to look at a market: macro and micro. Scholar Robert Bartels really got deep into both of these
in 1962 when he considered the components of marketing thought. 15 To view the marketplace at a macro level is to consider all things from a 30,000-foot view. It is to review the global network of influences that impact a segment of the market—things like regulation, social values, news, events. To use The Beatles example, the global impact of the war had to be considered as that brand was rolled out, or it would have been tone-deaf.
Now, in a chapter about going after a niche—i.e. the micro—you might think I’m gonna tell you not to worry about
the macro. But while we’re not interested in targeting a macro market, there are useful insights to be gleaned from
thinking about things on a macro level before we dive into the micro.
As you make decisions about what your niche will be, considering the market at a macro level is crucial. Do some
research on what the region around you is wanting, experiencing, and talking about.
Say housing inventory is low, how are they managing the pressure of demand?
Or maybe there has been a change in the rental policies by local government; how does that impact the broad
group of investors?
Perhaps it’s an election year and consumer confidence is flourishing—or maybe not so much. How does that impact
your local market?
These discoveries will hopefully influence your rollout, your content, and where you put your marketing
campaigns.
MICRO MARKETING
The devil is in the detail, as they say. If the phrase ‘one size fits all’ was actually true, the phone lines of Amazon wouldn’t be flooded with complaints, Nike wouldn’t have 1,500 design departments dedicated to each sport, and I wouldn’t own 14 awkwardly-fitting baseball caps. You would be hard-pressed to find any high-functioning company that offers a service that appeals to every single person in the world perfectly. It’s impossible. What’s true of the human race is that the heaven of one is hell to another.
Micro marketing means to concentrate your resources and marketing on reaching a select group of people.
You’ve probably heard the term ‘niche marketing’. It’s one of the most important things to understand and
implement in your marketing strategy so let’s spend some time on it.
Niche marketing means to choose a group of like-minded, like-habited, sometimes geographically-linked people,
and deliver a service or product based on their wants and needs. (An overly simplified explanation, perhaps, but
that is generally what it is.)