The slides explain what niche marketing entails and why the need for businesses to create a niche for themselves. They outline factors to consider in carving a niche for your business as well as propose methods you can use to choose a niche for your business

1. CARVING A NICHE
FOR YOUR
PRODUCTS AND
SERVICES

2. Objectives
■ Understand what niche marketing entails
■ Appreciatethe need to create a niche as a business
■ Outline factors to consider in carving a niche for your
business
■ Identifyhow to choosea niche for your business
■ Outline two main approaches to marketing to your niche
audience
■ Determinenichemarket entry strategies for your business

3. Content
■ Introduction toNiche Marketing
■ Carving a Niche
■ Marketing to your Niche Audience
■ Enteringyour Niche Market - Strategies

4. INTRODUCTION TO
NICHE MARKETING
Session 1

5. Introduction
■ Your company is not the only one offering a productor service
like yours.
– Thereare numerous financial institutions in Ghana – banks,
microfinanceinstitutions, savings and loans companies etc.
– In fact as at April 2016 there were 140 licensed rural and
communitybanks in Ghana
– Theyall have various financial products and services, even
someare exactly like what you offer
– All these institutions are chasingafter the same customers

6. Introduction
■ Thesecustomers are being bombarded with marketing
messages everyday and they are confused as to who they
should do business with
HOW DO YOU SET YOUR SELF
APART FROM YOUR COMPETITION?

7. Introduction
■ A common thought shared among small business owners is if
they offer more products/services, they’llget more customers
as a result. While this makes sense, having a business niche
can actually boost business more than offering a wide range
of products.
■ It may not make sense to everyone, but providing knowledge
about a small set of products/servicesto a defined market
will help businessesbe known for that “thing.”
■ When people knowthese businessesfor this “thing,” they will
instantly becomethe “choice” for their niche

8. Introduction
■ It’s better for your business to be the first choice of some
rather than the second choice of all. You need to identify what
you’rereally good at, throw your weight behind it, and
dominatethat one area above all else.

9. Introduction
■ One of the ways is by choosinga . A niche will help you
break through all the competition so you can survive in the
businessenvironment

10. So what is a niche?
■ A niche or niche market is
– a specific area in your target audience where you will position
yourself as the expert
– a segment within your target market where you spend the
most time marketing your product or service.
– a specialized market in which a clearly defined range of
productis sold to a specific group of customers
■ Your niche helps set you apart from your competition.

11. So what is a niche
■ Giraffes and zebras both feed on vegetation and yet they do
not compete while the zebra grazes grass, the giraffe collects
tree top leaves.
■ Theyboth specialize in certain areas and have their own
niche.

12. Niche marketing
■ Nichemarketing is therefore a form of marketing that is
geared toward a very specific population, or niche.
■ A business may form a niche market strategy around
– its specialization in a particular service, or
– serve a particular demographic group within its target
audience.
■ If the business forms its marketing endeavors around this
subgroup, this business would be in the practice of niche
marketing.

13. Example 1: Fashion Industry
■ General Term: Clothes design and sewing
– Competition: 167,000,000 businesses
■ Specific Term: Women’s clothes design and sewing
– Competition: 23,300,000 businesses
■ Specific Location: Women’s clothes design and sewing in
Kumasi
– Competition: 6,150,000 businesses
■ Niche: Women’s bridal clothes design and sewing
– Competition: 4,390,000 businesses

14. Example 2: Financial services
sector
■ General Term: Financial services
– Competition: 600 businesses
■ Specific Location: Providing financial services in rural areas
– Competition: 350 businesses
■ Specific Term: Providing financial services to small and micro
businesses in rural areas
– Competition: 280 businesses
■ Niche: Providing financial services to women entrepreneurs
(owners of small and micro businesses) in rural areas
– Competition: 150 businesses

15. Niche bank
■ A niche bank is therefore
– a specialized bank which deals only with certain types of
customers or services
– A bank that caters to and serves the needs of a certain
demographic segment of the population.
■ Nichebanks typically target a specific market or type of
customer,and tailor a bank's advertising, product mix and
operations to this target market's preferences. (Investopedia)

16. A niche is about…
■ Positioning.
■ A niche will help you position yourself within the target
audienceyou have chosen and will allow you to compete
more effectively for their business.
■ Choosinga niche allows you to focus on a specific piece of
the target audienceand make it your own. And this is the
bestway to compete against your competition.
■ Small businesseshave a definite advantage in niche
marketing. Small business can survive; in fact thrive, in
niches too small for big business to take seriously.

17. A niche is about…
■ Expertise
■ To carve out a niche in a specific sector, you need to
specialize and be an expert in what you do
■ You need to knowyour target audienceextremely well such
that there are no mistakes when you design products and
services for them

18. A niche is about…
■ Being different and standing out from the crowd
– You can not afford to do what everyoneelse is doing, you
need to stand out from among the pack if you want to carve a
nichefor yourself. You need to be clearly noticeable so your
target audiencecan identify you.

19. Why create a niche
Niche
Marketing
Reduced
Competition
Increased
Visibility
Word of
Mouth
Growth
Honed
Expertise
Enhanced
Customer
Relationships

20. CARVING A NICHE
Session 2

21. Factors to consider in carving a
niche
■ How does one carve a niche that already has a lot of players?
– There are various factors that go into determining how to
position oneself in the market and in what specific sub area
of your market to carve a niche for yourself.
– Lets look at some of them

22. Pricing
■ You may decide to create a niche using a pricing strategy. So
you either
– Price your products or services at a premium.
■ The rationale behind this is that customers are often willing to pay
extra to work with a business that is reputable.
– Price your service very low
■ To attract price conscious customers. Most new entrants use this
strategy although it is not sustainable and will only work if you intend
to gradually raise prices and be profitable in the long-term.
– the best way to go about this is by selling your productat the
same price as your competitors and by bringing it down
through discounts.

23. Niche positioning
■ The first step in niche positioning is to identify a negative
‘stereotype’ that exists among businesses in the segment and
then offer your product as an alternative that solves this
problem
– This is a strategy that can be applied to any industry
Eg. Within the fast food segment of the food industry, a company
may decide to position itself as a preferred choice for health
conscious consumers. So it focuses on using vegetable based
proteins such as soy, beans etc. for its dishes, provides only grilled
foods, no fried chicken or rice etc.
Eg. Unique Bank, Ghana before becoming a bank, focused on
providing loans in 48 hours as a solution to the long delay in
processing of loans by the conventional banks
■ The company captured a certain niche in the market place

24. Niche audience
■ Businessescan still carve a niche by targeting a specific
category of customers. The objective of this strategy is to
focus all your marketing and product building effort on
catering to one specific category of people.
– Eg. Women, students, children, professionals, geographical
area, community etc.
– Eg. The social network Facebook focused on catering to
university students who needed a private community of their
own, while LinkedIn focused on professional networking
among business customers.
■ Today, both of these social networks continueto exist and
they have distinct customers and uses although there is
sometimes an overlap between the users of these platforms.

25. Value added offering
■ What do you do if you offer a mainstream product or service
wherecarving your own niche or audienceseems
unrealistic?
■ In such cases, one wonderfulway to penetrate the market is
by creating value-added offerings that your competitors do
not provide.
– Value additions include home delivery (where none exist),
free consultations and complementary products.
– The idea is to enhance the value of your product or service
and thereby create an unfair advantage to you over your
competitors.
– Eg. Buy one get one free offerings, discounts etc.

26. How to choose a niche
■ Rules of niche marketing
– Don’taim at a general market
Focus on a sub segment of your market
Eg. If you operate in the beverage sector, do you want to focus on
alcoholicor non alcoholicbeverages? If non alcoholic, do you want
to focus on food beverages such as Milo, Horlicks, etc. or pure
drinks? If purely drinks, do you want to focus on fizzy drinks such as
coke, sprite etc. or fruit juices? Etc.
■ In other words, position your brand as narrowly as is
economicallypossible.

27. How to choose a niche
■ Beat your competition by identifying untapped niches
– There are a lot of untapped opportunities in our sectors if
only we look hard enough and are prepared to work with our
target audience to identify new niches
– Rapidly work with the target niche to co-innovate and reap
first-mover advantage by identifying a niche of opportunity
What are someof the untapped niches in the financial
sector?

28. How to choose a niche
■ Offer more specific, valuable information to a more targeted
audiencewhich is more likely to convert and become
customers
– Understand yourniche audience and give them what they
need
– Becomethe specialist that anticipates the needs of your
target

29. How to choose a niche
■ Remember, your niche should be:
– Unique: Aniche market needs to have defining traits that
separate it from larger audiences and make it easier to
target.
– Identifiable: You should be able to easily describe your niche
using details like demographics, behaviours, and interests.
– Scalable: Although yourniche might represent a very specific
subset of a market, you need to make sure that you’ll be able
to expand on it in the future to reach larger audiences that
may currently fall outside of your niche.

30. What to do when choosing a niche
■ Determine the profitability of the niche. Manyniches within
your target audience may not provide a decent return on your
marketing investment.
– Just because no one is marketing to that niche, doesn’t mean
that it is a worthwhile target. That is why you need to do your
duediligence. How do you determine if that niche will be
profitable?
Conduct
customer
surveys to
understand
them and their
needs
Assess the
competition
within the
niche
Identify your
niche
audience
Also helps you
determine if a real
marketexists and if
the numbers are
encouraging

31. What to do when choosing a
niche
■ Test your product for acceptance within that niche. The niche
may exist, but does your productor servicemeet their needs
or is there even a desire for the product?
Carry out
product
/service
sampling
Understand
your niche
audience Repackage
your products
and services
to suit their
needs

32. What to do when choosing a
niche
■ Embark on innovative marketing.
– It is easy to just assume that once you identify a nice you can
go on and market yourself to them using the same old
methodsand tactics
– Spend the time to determine the best way market to
them. Just like choosing your target audience, defining a
nichein that audience allows you to target and personalize
yourmarketing efforts.
– So try something new, something eye catching which has not
been done yet in your niche area
Remember there’s nothing new under the sun, if you look hard
enough, you’ll find something different to try

33. Essential factors of niche marketing
1. Understand the customers need.
2. Try to knowthe aims and objectives that the business wants to
achieve
3. Develop promotional materials to the targeted segment at the
motivation and interest of the consumer segment.
4. Target the best prospects who most likely can convert to
customers.

34. Group Activity: Defining a niche for your bank
■ The purpose of this activity is to help you identify a
niche for your bank or, at the very minimum, help
you generate ideas on what new areas you can
focus on in terms of products, services or markets.
1. Read Sheet 1: Three Tips to Choosing a Niche for
your Bank
– What ideas can you pick from it to develop a niche
for your bank?

35. Group Activity: Defining a niche for the bank
2. Defining your niche
– Assess your strengths as a bank
Write 5 strengths
– Assess your client base
What categories of people are they mainly? Individuals,
Businesses, Men, Women?
Which category of clients is the most profitable to the bank in
terms of volume of business and figures?
What specific services or products can be developed for
each category?

36. Group Activity: Defining a niche for the bank
– Assess your market/industry
What new products and services are evolving in the banking
industry
How can you adapt them to the environment in which you
operate and to any of your client base
– Assess your competition
What innovative products and services have they introduced
Is it possible to tweak some to suit our environment and
clientele?

37. MARKETING TO YOUR
NICHE AUDIENCE
Session 3

38. Who is your niche audience?
Your niche audience is your target market.
The group of customers you intend to sell
your product/service to.
It is importantto clearly define this group
since they play a large role in determining
your success or failure in your new niche

39. Who is your niche audience?
■ Some factorsto help you define your niche audience
– The age group – is the product/service targeted at teenagers,
university students, middle aged or old people. Sometimes there is
a possibility that the product will cater to the needs of all age
groups.
– Gender.
– Marital status
– Occupation
– Ethnic background,
– Health status,
– Incomestatus,
– Education,
– Hobbies, etc

40. Marketing to the niche
■ We will discuss two ways in which you can market to your
nicheaudience
1. Targeting your marketing efforts so as to convert audienceor
customers fromthe general market to join your niche market.
(if your product or service is of a kind that people can make
the switch)
Eg. Food products – Consumers can switch from using vegetable oil
to cholesterol free oil
Dressmaking – customers can switch from their usual tailor to use
the services of a niche tailor because s/he specializes in suits or slit
and kaba etc.
Financial services – customers can switch from using one
company’s products to another because of a particular service that
has been introduced in the niche company eg. Free financial
accounting set up for SMEs for the first 3 months or free business
supportto women’s groups which bank with the institution etc.

41. Marketing to the niche
– There’s a common misconception that crafting a successful
nichemarketing campaign is all about finding an audience
or customer base which is as small as possible and then
creating a strategy that only serves that audience.
– Actually, one of the ways to build an effective campaign is
uncovering an underserved niche market and then creating a
strategy that makes everyone want to be a part of that niche
– You need to not only speak to your potential niche customers,
but also activate members of your general audience who may
not yet have realized that they can also be your niche
customers.

42. Marketing to the niche
2. Marketing to your main niche audience
– Although having a niche has its advantages, there is still the
challengeof reaching this small, subset group and marketing
them effectively.
■ After all, how many people in Ghana want to buy fish fillets (if
that is your niche) or buy a luxury home or travel insuranceor
eat in an Indian restaurant which provides only Indian
cuisine?
– It almost seems like marketing to a niche market is harder
than marketing to the general public, but there is a way to do
it effectively.

43. Marketing to the niche
■ For both methods discussed, you need to :
This applies to all areas of marketing, but is especially true for
reaching your niche market.
For example, if you own a bakery that specializes in French bread
and pastries, your audience is motivated by very different things
than the people who will buy bread from the roadside so long as it is
bread.
Getto know their behaviors and find out their concerns, where they
go for their information and what drives them to come to you.
A good place to start is by talking to your customers directly.
Know Your Niche MarketWELL

44. Marketing to the niche
■ One of the most important aspects of niche marketing is
determiningyour uniqueselling proposition.
■ Your uniqueselling proposition needs to be ‘engraved’ on
your brand from the very beginning. It is the one defining
element that sets your business apart and it should guide
everythingthat you do—frommarketing campaigns to product
developmentand everythingin between.
■ It may be tempting to say that the quality of your products or
services or your packaging is your USP but a truly effective
uniqueselling proposition should go much deeper than that.
Determine Your UniqueSelling Proposition (USP)

45. Marketing to the niche
■ It is important to keep in mind that your unique selling
proposition may not necessarily be a single benefit or offering.
– It may be a coming together of factors which put together,
delight your customers and turn them into lifelong brand
advocates who always choose your business over your
competition.
■ Here are some questions to ask as a guide, to find your unique
selling proposition:
– What can you offer your customers that no one else can?
– Why should your customers bother buying your products and
services?
– What value does your business bring to your customers lives?
– How can you use what you now know about your customers to
alleviate their challenges or problems more effectively?

46. Marketing to the niche
■ In the process of defining your niche, you will probably
discover somegood ideas for products and services that you
can now sell to your ideal customers.
■ Always keep an eye out for inspiration: Wherever there’s a
customer with a challenge or problem, there’s a new product
or service waiting to happen.
ComeUp with a Product/Service or fine tuneand revampthem

47. Marketing to the niche
■ It is essential that your marketing materials reflect your new
niche ie. brochures, flyers, bill boards, adverts, website
content, word-of-mouth fromemployees to customers etc.
■ Crafting the perfect content for a niche market is important. It
sends the message to your audienceabout your new status
Specialize and tailor the contentof your marketing materials

48. Marketing to the niche
■ To build a successfulnichemarketing campaign, you need to
sell more than just a product, you need to sell a lifestyle.
■ Telling a compelling story about your brand is one of the best
ways to showcaseexactly why your product is the perfect fit
for your customers’ lives.
Tell a Story

49. Eg. of story telling
■ MTN mobile money TV advert
– Story about a man who forgot his wallet at home and was stranded
in a taxi because he couldn’t pay. He then sees the MTN mobile
money sticker on the taxi and realizes that the taxi driver accepts
mobile money. So he pays his taxi fare with mobile money, pays for
food at the restaurant with mobile money and the following day
intentionally leaves his wallet at home since he has experienced
how MTN mobile money makes his life easier.
– Other stories… MTN university campus love story for product
targeted at the youth, coca cola story using Ghanaian names

50. Converting your general audience
■ When your marketing efforts are geared towards converting
yourgeneral audienceto become part of your niche audience,
there is the need for
■ Nichemarketing is all about providing an audience, especially
one that might feel ignored or undervalued, with a senseof
identity and belonging.
■ This “Us vs. Them” mentality is a powerfulpsychological
trigger known as the Social Identity Theory.
Exclusivity

51. Converting your general audience
■ When you’re building your niche marketing campaign, it is
effective to contrast your niche audiencewith another group
to emphasize that not only are they different, but they should
be proud of being different.
– By discriminating against the out-group, the in-group
boosts their sense of self-esteem and belonging.
– You need to emphasize the resilience and uniqueness that
make them special.

52. Example
■ All the children who drink Milo in the advert run faster and
win the competition. And those who did not drink it end up
being the losers.
■ Ie. the advert thus reaches out to people who do not drink
Milo to join the bandwagon so they can also win

53. Marketing to your niche
■ When your marketing efforts are geared towards marketing to
your niche there is the need for
■ A niche market needs to be reached on particular marketing
channels, which means your business doesn’t need to be active
everywhere – radio, tv, website etc.
■ Choose the best channels where your niche audience spends
time. Churches, community events, youth programmes, using
gong gong beaters, social media etc.
■ If your niche audience are mainly semi literates, don’t focus your
energies so much on brochures and flyers, rather on word-of-
mouth and picture illustrations of your new niche
Selective
Marketing

54. ENTERING YOUR
NICHE MARKET -
STRATEGIES
Session 4

55. Entering your niche
■ In addition to choosing the appropriate marketing strategy, it
is crucial to determinethe timing of the introduction of your
nicheproduct or service.
– Should you be the pioneer of the niche product or service?
– Is being an innovator worth the risk?
– Is it better to wait and learn from the experiencesof the first
entrant to the market?
– If you are a pioneer, what can you do to prevent share erosion
when a new player enters the market?
– If you are a late entrant, what strategies should you adopt to
make your entry successful?

56. Entering your niche
■ In determiningan entry strategy into your niche market there
are various factors that need to be considered however, one
critical factor that should not be overlooked is that of
COMPETITION.
– Are there any competitors at all in your niche market?
– Is the competition significant or can you get a portion of their
market share?
– What tactics and strategies is the competition using to get
maximum market share and attract more customers?
how can you punch holes in their strategy to your advantage?

57. Entering your niche
■ Studies show that it costs more to be a pioneer in a niche
market. Let’s understand who a pioneer is.
– Productpioneer:
first firm to develop a model or sample in a new product/service
category
– Market pioneer:
first firm to sell in a new product/service category – The first
product/service to enter the market
■ Whicheverthecase, your institution is the first in terms of a
specific product/serviceor in terms of a new market

58. Entering your niche
■ Why is it expensive to be a pioneer?
– Introducing a new/nicheproduct or service requires a higher
investment in research and developmentthan
product/serviceimitation, and
– The necessary marketplace education and testing makes the
pioneerspend heavily on advertising and promotion. A
second or late entrant enjoys the fruits of the pioneer's labor

59. Entering your niche
■ On the other hand being first to the market provides a
significant and sustained market-shareadvantage over later
entrants.
■ Why? Because the pioneer:
– owns the positive image and reputation of being a pioneer,
– creates a base of loyal customers
– gains a competitiveadvantage
– is rewarded with huge profit margins and
– retains a monopoly-likestatus
– can make imitation by competitors as difficult as possible

60. Entering your niche
■ Notwithstanding, late entrants into a niche market can also
succeed byadopting distinctive positioning and marketing
strategies.
■ As a late entrant seekingto discourageany more newcomers,
as well as establish yourself in the market, you need to have a
thorough understandingof the strategies available to you.
■ Some of these are discussed

61. Strategies for late entrants
■ Common attacking methods used by late entrants
Price
discounts
Cheaper
products/
services
Prestige
products/
services
Product
proliferation
Service
innovation
Distribution
innovation
Product
innovation
Process
innovation
Advertising
innovation

62. Strategies for pioneers
• A simple strategy is to match any price cuts by the
competition with similar discounts, as long as the
price war does not get out of hand and erode
profits
Pricing
• Adding new features or capabilities can be a positive
and appealing way of countering a competitive
challenge.
Features
• A company can respond to competitor price-cuts or new
features by emphasizing after-sales customer care,
implicitly demonstrating that it stands by the superiority
of its products.
Service
• A strong public campaign demonstrating commitment to
the market, confidence in the products, or a willingness to
meet the competitor’s challenge.
Advertising

63. Entering your niche
■ Based on our discussion on how to enter your niche market
you may now be in a position to determinewhat strategies to
adopt in case you are the pioneer or late entrant.
■ Questions??

64. Resources
■ Anand Srinivasan - Business.com : ‘Your Mark: How to Carve Your
Own Niche In a Saturated Market’
■ www.PittmanUnlimited.com – ‘How to Define a Niche in Your
Target Market’
■ Hakan Köroğlu, Kazim Bayram & Kübra Sulukan – ‘Niche
Marketing’
■ Gurumurthy Kalyanaram and Ragu Gurumurthy – ‘Market Entry
Strategies: Pioneers Versus Late Arrivals’
■ David Lavenda - 10 Steps For Successfully Launching A New
Product Or Service
■ Kevin Donnelly - How to Use Niche Marketing to Build a Business
from the Ground Up