Challenges of Promoting Niche Products
Khushboo Sharma, Founder of ZGC, talks about promoting niche categories of brands. She further elaborates on the topic and discusses what should be on the focus of a team working on strategy and campaign for any niche products.
Let’s create a brand.
Fundamentals for working on any brand remain the same, but in the periphery, making a brand out of skincare products and a cargo company requires different efforts. In the world of advertising, every segment needs attention and effort.
It is equally challenging to make a strategy to introduce a new brand in the product category that is widely consumed and introducing a new product or service category altogether. Both require equal efforts but a different approach.
Let’s take a simple example of the Indian e-commerce industry. Education of Indian consumers about how to do online buying, trust the online resellers, and the idea of comfort of doorstep delivery at a scale was done first by Flipkart. By the time Amazon entered the India market, they didn’t have to teach what is online buying. Amazon just showcased how they are better and easy. The first mover has its own advantage and disadvantage. The challenges of the early days marker of Flipkart is a lot different from today. Now, the consumer knows Flipkart, and what it sells all the brand wants is them being considered while comparing the price with other platforms.
Firstly, let’s define what niche category of brands is. It could be a product or service yet not marketed or advertised widely. The selling is happening but not in an organized or structured format. Like selling anything online was niche five years back but not today. Selling personalized or beauty services at the doorstep was a niche selling for Urbanclap when they started. The service that urban clap has existed before, but it was an unorganized market. So the strategy used by them when they launched won’t be effective today for someone who is coming in the same category as a competitor. Accordingly, the niche for each product or service category changes concerning time and geography.
Now, as team working on strategy and campaign for any niche products what should be on focus:
- Environmental factors
There is a need for a more in-depth study and understanding of the impact of co-dependent elements like habits, culture, the ecosystem in which brand is consumed, demography, etc. Selling a product to an audience in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and selling the same in cities like Ahmedabad, Indore, Kochi. There is a different India within India.
- Identify what the real niche of your product
From selling and marketing point of view what is your actual niche?. Identify what niche you want to talk about your product, perfect that, improvise, take feedback, and internalize till you get the final perfect communication strategy in place. Tilt an eyeglass; see it a differently same product or service when presented differently means different.
- Is it convenience, is it service, or is it quality? What is your actual niche focus around?
- Ask hard question
- Does the world need this? Agencies or marketing team openly doesn’t dare much with this question to founders or directors of the company. Do we need one more skincare brand, do we need one more real estate? If yes, why.
- When we take local client or common product or services brand on-board as an agency at ZGC we ask ourselves, is there the scope of us to create anything unique for them, or it is business as usual? Even having this realize means a great deal.
- Evolve
- One of our client MYBYK, which started their service in 2014 in Ahmedabad. Being India’s first bike share platform positioning them as an agency, we worked very closely with the client. Understanding the response of early campaigns and pivoted communication with market feedback until we found the best suitable communication strategy with mass appeal.
- For MYBYK we concluded that we aren’t selling cycles but selling “Cycling Experience.” This wasn’t the first-day discovery.
Today due to advent of new media platforms each day there is new opportunity and possibility for marketers and agencies to innovate, push their limits and create unique brand stories.
Be patient, and remember this creating niche isn’t everyone’s niche.