Focus on "the long tail" - This refers to the portions of the population/market bell curve that reflect smaller markets.
The tail can be very long - lots of potential users who are not being serviced by the organizations that service the core consumers.
- Through mass marketing, organizations focus on the center of the bell: That's where the majority of the people are.
- With so many people on the Internet it has become much easier to market to people in the tails of the curve.
Specifically, there can be lots of people who are geographically dispersed with a like interest, but who are not interested in what the majority wants.
- These people's interests fall into niches for which it was not economical to have service providers except in the largest population centers.
It's True! Netflicks is an example of a company that has become successful by marketing to the tail of the curve. Users can request old, "indy", or foreign films not easily obtainable from local retail stores. Because of limited shelf space, the local Video rental stores have to cater to the general popular culture market, so they cannot stock all the obscure, non-mainstream films.
|