While covering the AlwaysOn Conference, paidContent’s David Kaplan highlighted some of the discussion around the fact that marketers still seem to be behind the curve when it comes to understanding social networks. Here, he quotes Ben Bajarian, president of Creative Strategies
. . .when it comes to finding a place for a brand when it comes to digital, "the future lies in vertical niches, where people connect around specific like-minded things.
You can get into people who love animals and you can drill down further
to a deep-vested interest, such as in a particular kind of dog. At that
point, that’s when you’re valuable from an eyeball standpoint. When the
advertiser is there for the same reason."
While Bajarian’s focus is digital, the point he’s making could apply to marketing in general. It might bot be a bad idea to look at the development of niche strategies, as was indicated in an AdAge article this past summer: Niches are about the narrow, not the small.
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I recall a few years ago during a Congressional Black Caucus weekend, the soon-to-be defunct Karibu bookstore owner (and his soon to be ex-wife) were listening intently tosomeone making this very point. Karibu was the vendor for the massive authors’ pavilion, of which I was part (or course if you weren’t a celebrity, a rapper or an author of garbage, our folk only lightly brushed by). After the soliloquy the owner shook his head and disagreed and said the speaker was all wrong about the vertical niche concept…
…did I say the stores were closing? All five branches of possibly the largest African American bookstore in North America?
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