People-driven niches

Yesterday we had a very inspiring about niches in FDIH’s knowledgesharing group for media and content, which I have the pleasure of chairing. We were almost 20 people from various companies, who spent a couple of hours at TV 2 in Copenhagen discussing niches, definitions of same and all sorts of issues in that context.

The meeting made me think quite a lot about what it would take for a company to succesfully claim a niche today and at the same time do it in a way that makes it hard for others to compete. The best answer I can come up with is simple really: People.

At the meeting quiet a few people suggested that niches were best operated by passionate people operating outside the confines of corporate environments. That may be true - there are certainly quite a lot of examples, and the barrier towards trying to carve out something for yourself, have never been lower - but I still don’t see, why they couldn’t do it within a corporate environment?

If you look at media companies they often have a lot of very qualified, well-known people associated. People who could become the center of a people-oriented niche effort. An effort where you not only as a customer identify with the subject matter but also with the ‘face’ to it. Of course the risk of doing this is, what will happen, if that ‘face’ decides to go on her own or leave for a competitor, but isn’t that a risk worth taking.

Giving a niche a ‘personal’ touch seems to me like a great way of establishing trust and connection with the customers. After all, it’s easier to relate to a person than to a company - most times anyway. Plus if you have that personal connection it gets harder for the competition to compete. You ‘just’ have to keep your passionate ‘face’ happy and prospering.

So in short: Put the spreadsheet away for a second and look at the raw passionate talent you have or that you can get into the fold, and use that as a starting point. Then you may take out the spreadsheet again, and I’m willing to bet that once you have the personal connection in place, it will not only generate a lot of ideas for your product or service - it will also make it a lot easier to put together a viable business plan.

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.