Crafting Your Brand Story : Unleashing the Power of Storytelling in Niche Marketing

How to create your niche market?

In a free market, your target customers only buy “the best” products from “the best” sellers in every transactions. Your target customers make purchase from you instead of others because you offer products better than other sellers.

However, sellers are facing indefinite number of customers and they define their own meaning of “the best” products and sellers; while sellers have limited resource to cater every individual customer uniquely. To effectively convert your target customers and turn your business to profit, you must find out your niche market, here are some simple tips:

What is niche market?

First of all, we will touch a little of marketing – what makes a market? In view of sellers, every market are different because it consists of many different buyers. If you are a footwear retailer, the footwear market can be divided into male shoes market and female shoes market due to buyer’s genders, then the female shoes market can be further trim down to young female shoes market.

The number of buyers decrease when you deliberately target specific group of customers and define a “small” market for your own business. Then, you can specialize your products to fit your small market the best you can, provide your customers for better products since you know better than other sellers. In marketing terms, the small market that you can serve better than others is “niche market”. A niche market should be:

• Unique: Your market is specified to a group of target customer, in the opposite to mass market.
• Recognizable: You are able to specifically describe your niche market, based on your customer’s age, gender, income, behavior, location, and so on

Why niche marketing?

• Avoid competition: Mass marketing in a big market does not represent higher profits, in fact you will face direct competition with many sellers. Stay focus on your niche market, you will compete with fewer sellers to outstand your products.
• Save resource: Mass marketing is resource-intensive since you are inevitably to advertise on mass media to launch your marketing campaign. Keep aiming at fewer target customers, you will put your effort in tailor-made marketing activities instead.
• Build up customer loyalty: When you know your customers better than your competitors do, and you are providing your customers for better products that your competitors cannot do, you are building up trust and thus loyalty with your customers in your niche market.

How to do niche marketing?

Niche marketing is more than finding out and aiming at your small market, it focus on creation of a network of target customers who have close connections with the sellers and other customers. Within the network, your target customers not only consume your products, they are also a part of the community to share their experience of the purchase with other customers and are willing to give feedback for products improvement.

To build up your niche market, your business should develop your own branding and create brand identity which is easy for your target customer to understand and attach to their need and want. To get started, you can focus on:

Your uniqueness:

Tell your customers your are not just another seller in the market:

1. Figure out how your competitors serving your customers.
2. Point out the drawback of the others competitors.
3. Provide your customers for your solution.

Brand Storytelling:

Your brand story may include:

1. About the founder members
2. About the team
3. About your suppliers (if any)
4. Goals / Objectives
5. Core values / missions / vision
6. Difficulties and solutions
7. Team development
8. Working culture

Unique Selling Propositions (USP):

Finally, you must deliver your brand’s uniqueness to your customers. To develop your USP, you can try to answer the questions:

• What unique things can you give to your customers that other businesses can not give?
• Why do your customers buy your goods?
• What value does your business create for the customer’s life?
• Can you solve your customer’s troubles and soreness?

It is noteworthy that your business USP is the summation of properties that are valued by your target customers, integrate your USP with your business operations, including marketing, product development, logistics etc.

Conclusion: Be different, be unique.

To highlight yourself in competition, you must emphasize that your products cannot fit every customers.

• Understand the difference among your customers
• Create your niche market
• Delivery your uniqueness