Niche Marketing Archives - The Niche Marketer

The Marketing Implications of Our Flawed and Imperfect Memories

Your memory is flawed. It’s not what we’ve been taught to believe. It’s not a perfect recorder that captures every minute of our consciousness. Instead of a recorder, our memories are more like a broad representation of our lives. Your memory is less like a recording device and more like a game of telephone.[1] To some people, this can be scary because humans are collections of experiences and if you can’t remember these experiences, it might make you question who you are.

Our memories are flawed and that’s okay. Vivid memories are especially flawed. Why? Well, every time that you recall a memory, you bring the past memory into the present moment and each time you do this, it is likely to be modified, even slightly. You do that 100 times, and that’s 100 opportunities for the memory to get altered. There are also so many different types of memory. The best marketers understand how the brain works and how memories are made. In this article, I’ll cover the marketing implications of your brand competing with several different types of memories.

Short-Term Memory

Your short-term memory is your working memory. There are two different types of short-term memory processing, imagery and discursive. Imagery processing is just like it sounds, it involves processing an image where discursive processing, involves the processing of words.[2]

Short-term memory also has a limited capacity. How limited? Well, based on a famous study by George Miller, most adults can remember 7 items at once (plus or minus 2). Dubbed “Miller’s Magic Number”, this study had lasting implications. Think of the amount of digits in a phone number, the number of words on a typical billboard, and the number of words in a good headline. They all hover around Miller’s Magic Number.

Our brains try to compensate for this lack of short-term memory availability with a concept called chunking. This is essentially grouping items to make them easier to remember. Mnemonic devices are a classic example of chunking. Do you remember “my very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas?” I get it, Pluto is no longer a planet, but still… I also remember one from 7^th grade: King Phillip came over from Greece swimming, which is a mnemonic device for kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Or my favorite, to remember my guitar strings, every average dude gets better eventually. That’s not just a great trick to remember your guitar strings, it’s also funny, not to mention its sage advice if you’re an average dude like me and you just happen to be feeling defeated when you sit down to play the guitar.

Marketing Implications

Due to limited processing, marketers have to not only capture your attention, but they need to keep it as well. As stated earlier, headlines and billboards need to appeal to short-term memory. Also, marketers need to keep three words in mind: repetition, repetition, repetition. In order to permeate the short-term memory to be imprinted to long-term memory, your message must not be forgotten.

Long-Term Memory

Your long-term memory is where information is permanently stored. Permanent? Well, many people believe that it is permanent, there are just so many items that can distort the memory itself and the retrieval cues to recall a memory.

Semantic Memory

Semantic memory is a type of long-term memory that shapes the facts about the world around us. Cars are things that have wheels that get us to where we need to go. Pizza is a round object that has sauce, cheese, and toppings. Semantic memory involves what we have gathered from our experiences that tell us general information and facts about the world around us.

Marketing Implications

Your product or your message can’t be too disconnected from what is known about a product. We see this happen in adoption rates for new products. When a product improves upon something that we’re already used to, it typically has a higher adoption rate rather than one that completely forces us to engage in a new behavior. Take something like Google Glass as an example. Besides potential legal and ethical issues of recording other people without them knowing, this strange device was also incongruent with people’s semantic memory of glasses. Glasses should improve your vision, not turn you into a nerdy cyborg. The stark difference in people’s views of reality likely led them to have a low adoption rate.

Mobile phones, however, have evolved more slowly. First, they were just regular phones that you could take anywhere. Then you could text, then came the Blackberry, and now, they’re not really used to make calls at all. Seriously, unless you’re in sales, when was the last time you answered a call from a number you didn’t recognize? Collectively, our semantic memories have changed over time to recognize phones as they are today.

Episodic Memory

family decorating their christmas tree — Photo by Jonathan Borba on Pexels.com

An episodic memory is a type of long-term memory that is tied to an experience. It could be a vacation, a party, or a bad day at work. Episodic memory involves many senses. Let’s say, for instance, you were remembering a birthday party you had on the beach with friends. You might remember what people were wearing, the smell of the sunscreen, the taste of a lunch you packed. You might remember what it felt like to get that really bad sunburn.

Episodic memories are very complex and could potentially shape the way that you think about certain places, people, or events. Let’s take that same example. At your party, maybe you were playing your music too loud and a couple of people approached you to ask for you to turn it down. This experience may shape the way that you view that particular beach, or beach town, forever. You might feel like it’s full of a bunch of fun haters, when in fact, it was just a couple of people that you are likely to never see again.

Marketing Implications

Marketers want to build strong episodic memories that are attached to their products. Places like Disney World cater to your desire to create episodic memories for your children. Car commercials don’t often focus on the features of the car, but where the car can take you (again, to create episodic memories).

Explicit & Implicit Memory

Explicit memory is when you consciously remember something. From a consumer behavior standpoint, maybe it is something like the ingredients in a Big Mac or the number of horsepower in a certain car’s engine. Implicit memory, however, occurs when you are not consciously aware, something comes to mind that you were not trying to remember, like a song that just pops up in your head out of nowhere.

Marketing Implications

Marketers are always fighting for space in your memory, whether you consciously or unconsciously remember the message. That’s why jingles and taglines are so popular. They are devices to create explicit and implicit memories in consumers’ minds.

Source Confusion

Memory source confusion, or source misattribution, happens when you can’t remember where a memory came from. Do you remember hearing that Subway’s bread had ingredients that were used in Yoga mats? Do you remember where you heard that? How about that McNuggets don’t actually contain chicken? Have you heard that and do you remember where you heard this information?

You probably don’t remember where you heard this information and probably didn’t do much fact-checking to make sure the information was true. Unfortunately, some of these items are really sticky in our brains and the story is just so interesting that it sticks with us, regardless of what is true. Source confusion can even be harmful. Misinformation campaigns can have lasting impacts on the way that we interact with the world.

Marketing Implications

For source confusion, there are many marketing implications. One implication is to carefully consider your response to negative PR. If you’re not careful, you can get in a fight with the press that ends up in an exchange that leads to more and more exposure which is rarely in your favor. This can just end up reinforcing the original claim and a consumer is not likely going to remember what was said in defense. You should develop a solid crisis communication plan so if you are ever in this situation, you have a step-by-step guide to help you through the problem. If you don’t you will certainly make the wrong move, maybe many wrong moves.

A crisis communication plan should have a section for an immediate response and an ongoing response. You should have an incident management and media relations team. My crisis communication plan has six steps:

First alert, where the team is notified
Get the facts
Verify and keep information moving
Prepare for media
When reporters arrive
Media follow up

The plan that I built also has worksheets for each team member, other than the spokesperson, that will be involved in any type of communication with the media. This plan was built off of the CDC’s crisis communications response. I would highly recommend anyone reading this that does not have a crisis communications plan to build your plan from the CDC recommendations.

Another marketing implication is that your brand has to accept is that for consumers, perception is reality. Regardless of the truth, if your consumers believe something negative about your company to be true, you need to do something about it. Remember the Subway yoga mat thing? They actually made two great moves. First, they didn’t come out and fight the claim and make everything worse, they just quietly got rid of the ingredient and moved on.

Source confusion doesn’t always have to have negative marketing implications for your brand, you can also use this to your advantage. Suggestibility bias shows that our memories and behaviors are subject to outside influences. Use an omnichannel approach to communicate your message. A combination of video, display, retargeting, print ads, direct mail, and public relations can help your key message stand out. The consumer is likely to forget where they saw your message, but if you run a comprehensive campaign with one strong over-arching message, you are more likely for it to stick.

Associative Network

An associative network is a group of items that are associated with one overarching concept. It includes all of the items that you might link with the concept. Some links may be strong, and some may be weak. For instance, for the concept of skiing, you may think of snow, skis, chair lifts, cold, or fun. But you might also associate items on the periphery, like the bar at the ski lodge where you sing karaoke. You may think of the only car that you can take because it has enough room to pack all of your equipment. You might live in Florida, so you might think of traveling. You might think of the cost. You might have really weak links like the kind of food that you typically eat before you go or warming up in the lodge or car afterward.

Marketing Implications

Knowing the associations customers have with your product can help you develop a stronger story for your marketing plan. For instance, an association related to M&M’s may be Christmas. Pushing red and green M&M’s at Christmas time could lead to stronger sales. It also appears that M&M’s have also attempted to increase their associative network with other holidays like Independence Day, Halloween, Easter, and Valentine’s Day. Around these holidays, you can find special, seasonal M&M’s with colors that fit the theme of the holiday. While what may have started as an attempt of building an associative network around the Christmas holiday for M&M’s has grown to attempt to just be associated with any holiday. They’re targeting parties and other gatherings in an attempt to be one of the links that tie all of these holidays together.

Wrapping Up

Our memories are perfect recordings. They’re more like representations of our lives. They are prone to distortion and manipulation. There are also so many different types of memories that shape the way we view the world. Our past experiences impact our future decisions. Marketers can shape our memories, whether it is changing our views of the past or promising positive future memories. Although your memory is far from perfect, all of these imperfections make up who we are.

[1] D. J. Bridge, K. A. Paller. Neural Correlates of Reactivation and Retrieval-Induced Distortion. Journal of Neuroscience, 2012; 32 (35): 12144 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1378-12.2012

[2] Hoyer, W., MacInnis, D., & Pieters, R. (2018). Consumer Behavior (Seventh Edition). Cengage Learning.

A Marketer’s Guide on How to Hack Your Habits

I was recently listening to an episode of “The Hidden Brain” podcast called “Creatures of Habit” and it reminded me of just how powerful of a role that habits play in our lives. Depending on the habit, their impact can be either positive or negative. Regardless of their intent, we engage in habits to achieve some type of realized (or unrealized) goal. Some studies show that 40 percent of the activities we perform each day are habits.[1] One study shows that habits can range from 18 to 254 days to form, with a median of 66 days.[2] Habits take repetition. They take time. They take patience. Since they take so long to form, they can take even longer to break.

As consumers, many of our purchases are habitual. In low-effort consumer behavior, these decisions are straightforward, involve little risk, are purchased often which is why many low-effort purchases become habitual. Think about some low-effort products you buy from the grocery store. What determines the brand of toothpaste you buy? What about bread, or milk? For many of these purchases, you are likely to buy whatever is cheapest. That’s a consumer behavior habit based on a price heuristic and you’ve likely been developing that habit for longer than you realize. You probably inherited many of your purchasing habits from shopping with your parents.

Habits can occur in both high-effort and low-effort behaviors. Although breaking a habit can be incredibly difficult, good marketers understand how to break your heuristics and introduce new products.

The Habit Loop

All habits happen in a loop which consists of three main components: the routine, the cue, and the reward.[3] The routine is self-explanatory. It’s the ritual that you are engaged in, which you likely see as the habit itself. This could be something like grabbing a drink with friends after work or eating something unhealthy at the same time every day. The routine, however, starts with a cue.

The cue of the habit is essentially the piece that triggers the routine. For instance, if you have a habit of eating a sugary snack every day is the cue your stomach rumbling? Is it going into a long meeting? Is it just because you engage in this behavior at the same time every day? When the cue is triggered, the habit begins.

The reward of a habit is the satisfaction that you get from engaging in the habitual behavior. For a sugary snack, it could be that you get more energy, or it is more likely that you are getting a dopamine hit from the sugar intake. For a healthy habit, like running, it could be the “runner’s high”, or the reduction in stress.

How a Marketer Hacks the Habit Loop

Purchasing and consumption habits can be decades-old rituals. Most companies want you to purchase their products out of habit. The key is to get you into the habit loop. Forget the typical products you might think of as habitual, like alcohol and cigarettes, how about something that doesn’t seem as harmful, at least on the surface. Let’s pretend that you need to get a few household items, you don’t want to go to the store, and you need them soon. Where do you go. I bet you go straight to Amazon and you probably didn’t even consider a different retailer. Why? They’ve figured out the habit loop. Whenever you need something (cue), you go to your ritual (go to Amazon and find your product), and get your reward (your stuff quickly). That two-day or next day shipping is tough to beat and they’ve got just about everything. Your reward, in this scenario, is probably the time that you save by not comparison shopping a bunch of different websites.

Okay, great, companies spend a lot of time trying to get someone hooked, how does a marketer intervene? Well, you’ve got to hack the habit loop. What consumers are you targeting? What are their habits? If you know this information, the easiest way to hack the habit is to focus on the reward section of the habit loop. The most obvious example is like-kind products since this is by far the easiest to replace. Although habits are incredibly hard to break, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the reward is always the same product, it is likely the same type of product. For instance, the habit loop could involve you eating ice cream every night after dinner. What we know about low-effort consumer behavior is that regardless of the habit, humans are typically variety seeking. That’s why there’s an entire aisle full of different ice cream flavors. You can easily swap out the flavors and receive the same reward for your daily ice cream habit. The way a marketer tries to hack the loop in this scenario is by trying to get the addicted consumer to switch brands to their brand of ice cream. Good marketers know this and will try to prevent switching by offering many flavors under their brand to keep loyal customers from trying other brands.

More sophisticated marketers have a better understanding of the reward cycle. Take for instance a really old campaign. In 1990, Wrigley’s partnered with ad agency BBDO to try and boost gum sales. They understood the power of habits and zeroed in on one habit that was starting to have many restrictions across the country, smoking. As legislation banned cigarettes from offices, restaurants, and airplanes (yep, you used to be able to smoke on airplanes), Wrigley’s saw an opening in the market. They realized that part of the routine of smoking was a habitual oral fixation, so they took a gamble that if consumers replaced smoking with chewing gum in places where they couldn’t smoke, the consumer would get a similar reward. Their campaign was so successful for their spearmint line that they extended it to all of their flavors.[4] Wrigley’s wasn’t successful in competing with other gum brands, they were successful by completely reimagining the habit loop and taking on a completely, seemingly unrelated product.

I’m Stuck in a Loop, What Can I Do to Break it?

Okay, that’s great. Marketers are manipulating my purchasing behaviors. How does that help me from stopping a habit I want to break? In “The Power of Habit”, Charles Duhigg explains that the biggest difficulty in changing habits is that every person is different, so there are infinite ways to actually change habits. An added challenge is that all habits are different. Quitting drinking is different than exercising, which is different than grabbing a mid-morning snack. He goes on to describe that each person will need to experiment with all of the components that make up a habit. All habits happen in a loop that includes a cue, a routine, and a reward. The framework to change a habit is to “identify the routine, experiment with rewards, isolate the cue, have a plan”.[5]

The easiest part of recognizing a habit is likely identifying the routine. It’s the compulsive behavior that you want to break. In the earlier example, its eating ice cream every day. The routine is really tough to break, and depending on your situation, the actual routine may be impossible for you to break. Never fear though, as stated earlier, a habit involves three parts, and you can experiment with the other two.

Although the routine is tough to break, you could try to determine the cue that drives the routine. If you are able to eliminate the cue, you could eliminate the routine. To figure out the cue portion of the habit loop, Charles Duhigg recommends that the moment the urge hits, write down the time, location, emotions, other people around, and the immediately preceding action.

The rewards portion of the habit loop could be really difficult to determine, and Duhigg recommends experimenting for several days, or possibly weeks to help identify the reward. In my ice cream example, is it the ice cream that is the reward? Is it the dopamine hit from the sugar? Is it the cold feeling after a hot meal? Duhigg recommends experimenting with other types of rewards. In this case, maybe you could try a cold seltzer water, or a bowl of popcorn. He recommends writing down what you are feeling as you experiment and waiting several minutes after the experiment is over to see if you still have your craving.

Final Thoughts

As humans, we run our lives on habits. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Our lives would actually be pretty terrible if we had to make conscious decisions about each item we put in our cart every time we went to the grocery store. These shortcuts can save us time, and make our lives easier. However, they can also make our lives miserable. Marketers are always looking for ways to hack into a habit loop. While this can be done pretty easily by focusing on replacement products, truly remarkable marketers have a profound understanding of how the brain works. Marketing is not just an art, it’s also psychology. If you take the time to understand consumer behavior, you can gain a clearer understanding of how to stay in front of the competition.

[1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140808111931.htm

[2] https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.prox.lib.ncsu.edu/doi/full/10.1002/ejsp.674

[3] Duhigg, Charles, “The Power of Habit”

[4] https://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/19941126/ISSUE01/100010696/staid-wrigley-sets-out-to-freshen-ad-image

[5] Duhigg, Charles, 2012. The Power of Habit.

Build a Brand That People Hate

Think of a brand that you hate. A brand that every time you think about it, you have a visceral reaction. You wish you could exist in a world where that brand does not exist. The Real Housewives perhaps? Maybe the Kardashians? Maybe you hate the entire Bravo TV or E networks? How about Microsoft, or Apple? Ford or Chevy? Peloton? How about the New England Patriots? If you really start to think about brands, I’m guessing that you could come up with more brands that you really hate than brands that you love.

A strong brand attracts a lot of haters. Why? Because it stands for something. Many brands get so concerned catering to everyone’s thoughts, emotions, and concerns that their brand becomes a boring, watered-down brand that doesn’t really mean anything to anyone. Kmart is a great example. While other department stores seemed to find a niche (Walmart for low prices, Target for trendy retail), Kmart has been in a tailspin for years. At the time of this writing, there are only 34 stores left in the US. Kmart was never really a leader, they were a follower.

Does Anybody Hate Kmart?

clothes on sale — Photo by Artem Beliaikin on Pexels.com

Kmart never really found an identity. They had some stores that were named Kmart, some that were named Super Kmart Center, some that were named Big K, some that were named Super K, and that was all just in the early 2000s. They’ve been in a decline for over 20 years and it’s partially because they could never find their identity. Do you hate Kmart? Did you ever hate Kmart? The only thing I ever remember about it is that it kind of smelled like mothballs. Other than that, I never really cared much about Kmart. I’m guessing that most people never really cared either.

GM Tries Not to be Hated

car chevrolet automotive vehicle — Photo by Raduz on Pexels.com

In my opinion, a similar thing happened to GM’s portfolio 30+ years ago. GM has what’s called a “house of brands” strategy. This basically means that the parent company has many different brand names under the umbrella brand. GM has Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC. Among others, they also used to have Pontiac and Oldsmobile. The original plan that existed in the ’60s for this house of brands included a really smart segmentation strategy that positioned their brands perfectly for their target audience. The Pontiac brand was exciting they had the slogan “We Build Excitement”. They built the GTO and the Trans Am. The Cadillac brand was strictly top-of-the-line luxury vehicles.

The bigger GM grew, the more they tried to create economies of scale. Basically, how could they do things more efficiently? GM started platforming their vehicles. They took the same chassis, and even the same or very similar body styles and tried to market them to different audiences. One common combination they introduced is what is known as the G-body. G-body cars included the Buick Regal, Chevy Monte Carlo, Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevy Malibu, Pontiac Bonneville, and a few others.

While this line of cars was incredibly successful, and in my opinion, created some of the most memorable American cars ever built, the prevailing idea of platforming started to create brand dilution for the GM brand. As the ’90s came around and SUV’s and minivans changed the vehicle landscape, GM didn’t properly maintain a strong segmentation strategy. Most of their brands had a minivan. Every brand had an SUV. Every brand had a luxury vehicle, a sports car, a cheap compact. Their brands had had something for everybody, and they didn’t really stand for anything.

About the Real Housewives

close up photo of martini in cocktail glass — Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

So you probably didn’t hate Kmart or GM, but how about something like “The Real Housewives”? I’m guessing if you don’t hate this franchise, you know someone who does. If you’re not familiar with the show, first off, congratulations, and second, even eight years ago, it was a half a billion-dollar franchise.[1] It’s a show that, well, let’s just say that it’s pretty much about rich women getting drunk and fighting. This is why people hate the brand. This is also a big reason why people love the brand. There’s a percentage of viewers that tune in just to hate-watch, which is this weird phenomenon where people watch shows just to talk about how much they hate it. This term is so prevalent in society that it’s on dictionary.com. This brand is so powerful that people watch it just to hate it and by doing this, it increases ratings and ad revenue. This only fuels the brand’s success. If people didn’t care so much, it wouldn’t be such a strong brand. If people didn’t hate the brand as much as they do, it wouldn’t be worth a Billion dollars.

It’s Not For You

For this discussion, I want to make clear that I’m suggesting building a brand that people hate which is different than a brand that fails, like a product that breaks easily or a brand that has poor customer service. It’s easy to hate a brand that doesn’t perform to expectations, and a brand that is hated for this reason will ultimately fail. The type of “brand hate” I’m describing is essentially hating a brand that is not for you. The reason you don’t like it is that it’s aimed at a different target audience. Their message is intended for someone else. If you find yourself hating a brand, chances are that a ton of people love that brand. You don’t have to like it. The creators of the brand were able to build something that really connected with a particular group of people. These brands probably don’t impact your daily life, so if you really want to show your dislike for a brand, just forget about it. It’s really no big deal, some people love a brand you hate, and our strange differences are what makes us amazing.

Building a brand so strong that people hate it involves “niching down” to a point where it connects so well with one or two target audiences that anyone outside of those groups doesn’t get it. In these instances, you build a connection so strong that the in-group becomes so rabid about the brand that the out-group is upset that they don’t understand. Slogans like “It’s a Jeep Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand”, and “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” come to mind. The creators of Billy Bass seemed to have nailed this concept when they identified the novelty Christmas gift segment, likely for males that were even loosely into fishing when they created a product that seemed to have the fastest trajectory from funny to annoying of any product that has ever been created.

People Hates Crocs

Crocs is a brand that people seem to love to hate. There are videos of people burning Crocs, people cutting up Crocs with Scissors, at one point, there was an IHateCrocs.com. Yep, people hate the brand so much that they buy the product just to destroy it. They spend money and time buying domains and producing content just to protest the brand. Just Google “people hate crocs” and you’ll see how people spend their time hating a brand. As I described earlier, this likely only fuels the brand’s success.

Do you know who loves everyone’s hate for Crocs? Crocs, that’s who. After selling 700 million shoes, they’ve built a brand off of being one of the most distinctive shoes of a generation. At the height of their popularity, they had tons of standalone retail stores, a massive distribution network and so many products that veered out of what they were known for: those weird-looking clogs. They started trying to be everything to everyone and like just about every company that tries to do this, they failed. But they didn’t let a little brand dilution get in their way, the refocused and made a comeback.

Crocs had a resurgence with a fashion trend called “ugly fashion”. Ugly fashion is not just a clever name, it’s, well…it kind of reminds me of “Saved by the Bell”. Mismatched clothes, plaid suit jackets, loud colors, oversized shirts, ugly fashion, and Crocs were a perfect match. The company saw this trend, realized their failure of trying to go mainstream and doubled down on their clogs. Now you can get all sorts of crazy Crocs. You can get Goth Crocs, KFC Crocs, bacon and egg Crocs, donut Crocs, you can even get Grateful Dead Crocs.

About Nickelback

I’d be remiss if I spent the time to write an article about brands that people hate without touching on Nickelback. Nickelback hate is real. They’re possibly the most hated band on the planet. Why? Well, I don’t really know. Let me be clear, I don’t like Nickelback. I think they suck, but I think there are objectively worse bands on this planet. I’ve also heard first-hand accounts from people that say they were really good to their fans when they met them in person. So why all of the hate? I’d like to think that I know, but there are people waaaaaaaayyyyy smarter than me that have tried to figure this out. Some explanations include that they lack any type of authenticity, they don’t really stand for anything, they are only trying for commercial appeal, etc.

These explanations sound to me like a band that is trying to be everything to everyone. As I explained, this is typically a bad strategy as it lacks brand direction. But as I also explained, a strong brand is a brand that some people hate. What if a TON of people hate the brand? Well, maybe that’s what we’re seeing with Nickelback. Are people “hate listening” to Nickelback? Is there a Nickelback “silent majority”? I’m guessing that 50 million record sales into their career, Nickelback is okay with people hating their band. If you build a strong brand, you should be okay with all of your haters too. If you hate Nickelback, it’s okay, they’re not for you. Your hate is just fueling their success. You could just forget about them.

So, How Does This Work?

To build a brand so strong that you have haters outside of your target audience, you need to build an amazing brand. So how do you do this? Well, unfortunately, there’s no one formula or process that you can follow that will immediately create a strong brand. Anyone that tells you any different is either lying to you, trying to sell you a book, or more commonly, both. Anymore, they’re more likely to be trying to sell you an online course on how you can create a strong brand for the low, low price of only $199 and if you act today, they’ll throw in a side of snake oil. There are so many shifting factors to consider like economics, changes in consumer behavior, other entrants to the market, and competitive pricing pressures.

Good brands don’t exist in a lab. They’re living and constantly evolving in the real world. There are, however, a few best practices that we know help.

Know Thyself

Although it sounds really basic, many brands struggle with an identity crisis (see GM or Kmart examples referenced earlier).

Some of the most common traps that I typically see are:

Trying to be who they want to be instead of who they are
Trying to be their competitors

Knowing what you do well is critical and positing those brand differentiators is key. If you’re not doing that, your message is NEVER going to connect. Think of this extreme example. If a brand like KFC discovered that all of their competitors were becoming really successful with selling salads they might want to get into the salad game. Even starting to sell salads seems a little strange for a brand that is known for fried chicken, biscuits, and mashed potatoes. However, if they REALLY wanted salad market share and started neglecting their core business to focus on salads, they would struggle. They’d be facing an identity crisis, which many brands struggle with daily.

Most brands just don’t completely change direction like in the KFC example, it happens more gradually. This often happens when a company continually introduces new product lines without the proper support. With economies of scale approach, most administrative staff would typically handle both new and existing initiatives. When this is done without bringing in the proper additional support personnel, existing product lines can get diluted, new product launches don’t get the proper attention, and a company can lose sight of its foundation. In many cases, this takes years and the support erodes so slowly that the team that is managing the product or products don’t even realize the impact until it is too late. As I pointed out earlier, it happened to GM, it happened to Kmart, it happens everywhere. Knowing your strengths and “niching down” to really connect with your target audience is key. Be different. When your competition zigs, you should zag, otherwise you’ll just be another Kmart.

Know Your Customers

woman wearing maroon velvet plunge neck long sleeved dress while carrying several paper bags photography — Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Just as important at knowing yourself is knowing your customers. Have you built a customer profile? Do you know your customer demographics? Do your customer psychographics? Do you know what impacts their decision on whether or not to buy your products or buy your competitors’ products? Do you know their typical buying journey? How long is their sales cycle? What problems can you solve? How can you be of service? It’s likely that if you have more than one product, this is different for every distinct segment of your market.

Do your products fall under the category of low-effort consumer behavior or high-effort consumer behavior? Although brand awareness is critical to both types of behavior, knowing how the brain processes these decisions is key to help map out your buyer’s journey.

A customer’s needs are constantly changing and evolving. Their buying behaviors and preferences are always developing. Are you keeping up with their needs and wants? If not, you will quickly find yourself outside of the category of a brand people hate and into the category of a brand no one cares about.

Don’t Suck

Another thing to consider are the elements of your brand. Your name, logo, URL, packaging, taglines. Make sure these don’t suck. They don’t need to resonate with everyone but make sure they resonate with your target audience. Also, make sure your products and customer service don’t suck. If not, people will hate your brand for all of the wrong reasons. Make sure you attract haters for all of the right reasons.

Encourage Your Haters

The next time you think about your own brand, think about how many people hate your brand. It could help you discover and embrace the people that love your brand. To your brand, those are the people that matter. That audience is going to make your brand strong enough for people to hate.

You can find out more about niche marketing here.

[1] https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/real-housewives-bravo-andy-cohen-cover-278072

Four Powerful Life Lessons I Learned by Working With One of Ringo’s All-Starrs

August 1st, 2003, I was late coming into my internship at Compass Records. We all were. We were all at our homes watching Good Morning America. Why? Well, we were just about to witness one of our artists performing live on national television with Ringo’s All Starr Band. Yeah, that Ringo. The freakin’ Beatle. That year’s roster included Sheila E., John Waite (the “Missing You” guy), and Colin Hay, from Men at Work. Yep, that Men at Work. You may recognize some of their songs like “Land Down Under”, “Overkill”, and “Who Can it Be Now”. I was barely 21 and I was fortunate enough to be working with a brilliant group of people that were focused on relaunching Colin Hay’s career. They were repositioning him as a solo artist, helping distance him from the famous 80’s sound to allow his amazing songwriting to flourish.

The record had just come out the prior month and there was so much media appeal. It was receiving pretty heavy rotation on niche radio stations across the US and the team had managed to get him on the TV show Scrubs. How wild is that? Here’s the video:

All of that was great, but this was the big time. National morning television, and, oh yeah, he was with Ringo. To all of our surprise, of the four songs that Ringo played, he let Colin play two.

We sort of trickled into the office that day. I remember giving high-fives all around. We were really excited to be part of something we knew was going to be big. The momentum that surrounded this release and the remaining tour with Ringo had not only the ability to sell a lot of records, but it could entirely reinvent Colin’s career.

At the time, Compass had only three full-time employees and three interns (myself included). I’ll never forget what it was like to see what an amazing job just three, super-talented employees could do. They helped someone make an extraordinary career comeback. They handled everything including input on the actual recording, distribution, radio promotions, public relations, and advertising. As a residual to this success, they managed to sell a ton of records in the process.

I had the coolest internship I could have ever asked for. It was a defining moment that changed my life. The team at Compass was amazing. They didn’t have me doing typical intern grunt work. They were incredibly inviting and allowed me to actually help take care of what needed to be done. For this record, I was able to help set up interviews directly with Colin. Nobody treated me like an intern. They treated me like part of the team.

So, what did I learn from this experience?

Everything Has a Niche

Acoustic Guitar - The Niche Marketer Blog — Photo by 42 North on Pexels.com

Sure, there was some mainstream appeal for this record, but it just wasn’t a top 40, mainstream album. For Colin, those days had come and gone. The audience had changed. The record was “Americana”, not pop and it was largely acoustic. Although there was likely some crossover potential to former Men at Work fans, that wasn’t the main focus. Outside of the mainstream appearances with Ringo, Colin’s record had a niche appeal. It was up to the team at Compass to define that audience. We built a profile around the most-likely buyer. This included listeners of influential independent radio stations like KEXP in Seattle and KPIG in the Bay area. It included readers of roots and acoustic music publications like No Depression and Paste Magazine. It also included shoppers of stores like Borders.

They didn’t waste our time chasing every opportunity. That wouldn’t be productive. By defining our niche, the team able to funnel the modest advertising budget, and more importantly, the human capital, toward opportunities that would resonate with the target audience.

Roles and Titles are Not That Important

Although there was a Director of Marketing, Director of Public Relations, and Director of Radio Promotions, the roles and titles didn’t really matter that much. Everything was a team effort. The success that the team had come from the camaraderie they had built. One great idea would spark another. One big success would build to the next one. Their positive attitudes were infectious. They believed they could do great things and they did, with just three full-time employees. I was just an intern and they valued my opinion. They made a difference because they believed in themselves and they believed in the products they were selling.

Embrace What’s Happening

Concert - The Niche Marketer Blog — Photo by Dom Gould on Pexels.com

I left the music industry in 2007. I’d grown up a musician and I always dreamed about somehow being attached to something I loved. I wasn’t in the industry for very long, but I’ll never forget the time I had when I was there. It was exciting. People that work in the music industry are some of the best marketers I’ve ever met. It’s a really tough business, especially in an era of streaming. It’s a business that is incredibly lean, fast-paced, and innovative. We were early adopters of social media. We were followers of the latest up-and-coming media outlets. We were always looking for a new way to hustle because if you didn’t, you would be sunk.

Although everyone I know that has left that industry has never gone back, they are the most creative people I’ve ever met. They’ve been able to excel in new industries and I’m guessing that’s because the music industry naturally attracts creative people. Most of us just followed our hearts, not our heads, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

However, when you get involved in something so special, like the project I worked on with Colin, you tend to get wrapped up in the task. What is happening almost doesn’t seem real. Looking back on it, I still have a hard time believing that it was a part of my life but it happened. Even though I remember it all well, I do regret not embracing the moment more than I did. It was unreal. Sometimes you just have to stop, take a breath, and enjoy life rather than be so focused on your next challenge. It’s something I still struggle with, but I think I’ll get there some day.

Careers Need to Be Continually Reinvented

man performing on stage — Photo by Wendy Wei on Pexels.com

Colin Hay was someone that almost everyone knew. If you didn’t know his name, you knew his songs. However, even someone as famous and successful as him still needed to reinvent his career. If he hadn’t done anything after his time with Men at Work, he might not have been forgotten, but he certainly wouldn’t have had the satisfaction of a resurgence. He wasn’t afraid of putting in the work, going on the road, and continue doing everything he could do to stay relevant. Let that sink in. A guy that had one gold record and two platinum records in the US never quit. He wasn’t satisfied after that. His was relentless. He was humble. He was always learning. He believed he could do it. These were the reasons he was so successful.

Wrapping Up

I’ll never forget the kindness that I was shown by everyone at the label. With the experience I gained from that internship, I was able to step into a Marketing Director position at a record label immediately when I graduated college. Without this experience, I never would have gotten that job. Although my time in the music industry came to an end long ago, I’ll always take the hard work, positive attitude, and relentless pursuit of doing something amazing with me throughout my life.

Why You Still Want That Rolex

How Rolex Sells Watches by Creating Problems

I was 16 years old when my dad came home from New York with a gift. He opened his bag. “I thought you needed a new watch”, he said and handed me this gorgeous silver and gold watch.

“Woah, this is a Rolex,” I was surprised. At 16, the only thing I really knew about Rolex was that they were expensive. How expensive? I had no idea, but I probably shouldn’t be wearing this to my job at the grocery store where I pushed carts and stocked shelves.

He just kind of laughed. My mom laughed too. “It’s not real,” he said.

“What do you mean, it’s not real?” I asked. Still, I had no idea what was going on. Well, he didn’t get me a Rolex. As my friend Brendan put it, he got me a Fauxlex. Yep, a fake Rolex. It looked real to me, but I was pretty clueless. I’d never seen the real thing. Now, I’m almost 40 and I’ve still only seen a few real Rolex’s. At least, I think they were real.

I really didn’t care that it was fake. I thought it would be impressive if I could pull one over on someone. I wore it to school. I wore it to work. I didn’t really fool anyone. It clashed with my hoodies, Led Zeppelin tee shirts, and my giant green Doc Martens. Since it wasn’t fooling anyone, I leaned into the joke. I wore that Fauxlex everywhere until it finally met its demise falling 3 feet onto the concrete when I was banging on the glass at a minor league hockey game. It never really worked ever again.

Even at 16, I knew one thing about the Rolex brand. It’s what Rolex has built their brand on for over 100 years. A Rolex was a sign that you had “arrived”. You wore a Rolex because you could wear a Rolex. I knew that even at a time when a watch was more necessary than it is today, that the Rolex brand didn’t really fit much of a practical need. My Folex told time just as well until it broke. So how had they made such an aspirational association with a clueless 16-year-old when I wasn’t their target audience?

Rolex Creates Problems

Problems. As marketers, we’re pretty good at creating them. It’s a technique known as poisoning the well. The strategy is thousands of years old. You essentially tell someone their well is poisoned and that you are the only one that has the antidote. In high-effort consumer behavior, problem recognition is the first step in the purchasing journey. However, some products that involve high-effort behavior do not necessarily involve a practical problem, so problems have to be created. The way marketers typically create problems is by telling you that what you have is not enough. They then make a promise that what they are selling will make you fill in the blank: (happier, healthier, thinner, more successful, etc.)

So, how does Rolex do this? Does anyone need a Rolex? For that matter, does anyone ever really need a watch? Seriously though, there are ways to tell time all around us. We have clocks on our phones, tablets, in our car, just about everywhere. So how does a company like Rolex still exist? Does anyone need an archaic, analog device, that costs $7,500 for the “base” model? Although they have built a strong brand for over 100 years, how does a product thrive to be a $5 billion-dollar company when by all accounts, it should be on its way to obsolescence? Rolex has done what every high-effort consumer behavior expert dreams of doing. In my opinion, they nailed step one of creating problems.

One of their messaging strategies involves the same tactics any motivational speaker uses to get you to buy their products. It’s the “dress for the job you want, not the job you have” method. This strategy is on full display in their “Every Rolex Tells a Story” campaign where they feature people that have “made it”. Check out this ad with James Cameron.

https://youtu.be/RgpoRGq3oBs

So what did they do here? Again, it’s the “dress for the job you want” tactic. Wow, James Cameron. Who doesn’t want that kind of success? Since he’s doing an ad for Rolex, the watch must have somehow contributed to his success, right? They’re planting the seed that James Cameron and everyone else that is part of this campaign can attribute their success to Rolex. The beauty of what they are doing is that they are communicating that message (associating success with Rolex) without overtly saying this. If you hadn’t thought of what they were doing with this type of ad, would you be able to recognize this tactic? Maybe, but Rolex isn’t relying on their advertising appealing to logic. They’re relying on their advertising to appeal to emotion.

They do a fantastic job of convincing affluent consumers that if they don’t have a Rolex, they haven’t arrived. This strategy has been so successful that the basic concept of their messaging has never really changed. Rolex spends big money advertising in high-net-worth sporting events, publications, and websites. The way they advertise relies heavily on indirect normative influences. They realize that the person that is purchasing the Rolex is heavily influenced by the group of people they associate with. It’s the whole “if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you?” lecture that your mom gave you when you would blame your behavior on your friends. It’s not an uncommon strategy. For example, many companies do this with an overarching message of sustainability. Toyota does this with Prius. Burt’s Bees does this with everything they sell. Rolex just has a much smaller niche, and in my opinion, they do it better than anyone else.

High-effort consumer behavior, like the decision to buy a $7,500 watch, relies on problems. Sometimes, though, your problem involves a legitimate need. You need a car for transportation, your computer quit working and you need to finish your work, or your phone battery won’t hold a charge anymore and it can’t be used for more than an hour off of the charger. Although the way that you arrive at the problem when there is a legitimate unmet need is different than a manufactured problem, the way you buy things is the same. Rolex is just amazing at creating perceived problems that only they can solve. It doesn’t really matter if the problem is real or not.

Photo by **hassan mehdi** from **Pexels**

Consumers are Lazy

Once a problem is realized, the second step of a high-effort behavior is to look for information on how to solve your problem. This type of search could really be anything. It could be internal, like remembering past experiences or ads. It could be external, like getting a referral from a friend or researching alternatives online.

You might think that we put in a lot of effort into making a major purchase but that’s not really the case. There’s a term in cognitive psychology called the “Cognitive Miser”. Our minds are considered to be cognitive misers. This essentially means that when we make decisions, we’re sort of lazy, regardless of our intelligence. In general, we would much rather put in little effort to solve our problems than putting in extra effort and meaning. (Stanovich, 2009)[1]

This can’t really be true, can it? Yep. It’s true. What’s one of your biggest monthly bills? I’m guessing you said mortgage, well, either that or daycare. You would think that we do a considerable amount of research when finding a home lender, right? Nope. Definitely not. Our brains want to take the easy way out and find a solution that is good enough. One major study found that the average number of sources the consumer consulted when selecting a place that was likely going to determine the amount of their largest monthly expense…was two. (Lee & Hogarth 2000)[2] Yep, two. Let that sink in.

analogue chrome dial focus — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

How Can You Use This Information?

Alright, let’s say you’re a marketer and your potential customer realizes there is a problem, whether you created the problem or not. The next step is to be able to nail the information search portion of the high-effort consumer behavior journey. Now you know the secret that all good marketers know. If consumers only check out two sources before they make a purchase, and one of those sources is yours, you’re pretty much halfway there. So, the question is, how are you going to provide this information? Is it going to be through video? An informative blog, or series of blogs? Email to a customer curated list? Social media? Old-fashioned snail mail?

For a well-defined niche market, I usually take an omnichannel approach. This is a just fancy way of saying all of the above. Why? It doesn’t take an in-depth analysis of consumer behavior to understand that people are all different. While some prefer reading in-depth articles, others will skim just for the key points and takeaways. Some need the information delivered directly to their email, some want it sent to their desk, some want to watch an informative video, and some would prefer the interaction and community found on social media. This has been especially effective when you are dealing with a niche market because regardless of the medium, you are not dealing with massive media budgets. The types of markets I work with max out around 5,000 target consumers. I often work with targets of 500 or less. That takes a pretty targeted media approach, one where you can cover just about every type of communication for a pretty reasonable budget.

Can You Combine the Two?

Realizing that consumers are lazy, Rolex has done an excellent job in combining both step one and step two. Their advertisements create problems but they offer solutions. The solution, conveniently, is to buy their watches. One clever headline reads: “A Rolex will never change the world. We leave that to the people that wear them.” As a consumer, this plays to my ego and I just realized that I have a problem. I want to change the world, but I’m not changing the world. Bingo, step one of high-effort consumer behavior, check! How about step two? Well, they just told you. People that change the world wear Rolexes. Are we that gullible? Maybe. Maybe not. Are we that lazy? See Cognitive Miser theory.

What’s Next?

Once we realize there is a problem and consume information on how to solve that problem, we reduce our alternatives down to a few. This is typically 2-8 alternatives, which we often call the consideration set[3] (Allen et al., 1991). However, if you’ve already built your brand to be a frontrunner like Rolex, if you get to this stage, you’re going to have a higher probability to make the sale.

The final steps involved in a high-effort purchase are the actual purchase and post-purchase behavior. The interesting thing about the post-purchase behavior of Rolex customers is that the product is so coveted that the owner will always want it to be seen or noticed. By wearing a Rolex, they’re walking advertisements for the brand. Given the price point of the watch, it is highly likely that the person wearing it is monetarily successful. This perpetuates everything that the brand stands for.

Takeaways

For high-effort behavior, the first step in the customer journey is to get someone to realize there is a problem. Once that problem has been recognized, a consumer tries to find a way to solve that problem. Then, they narrow their choices and buy a product. How can you help them along the way? If you can do this as well as Rolex, you can roll the first two or three steps into one, giving you a greater likelihood of being chosen over your competition.

[1] Stanovich, Keith E. (2009). “The cognitive miser: ways to avoid thinking”. What intelligence tests miss: the psychology of rational thought. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 70–85. ISBN 9780300123852. OCLC 216936066.

[2] Lee, Jinkook & Hogarth, Jeanne M. Consumer Information Search for Home Mortgages: Who, What, How Much and What Else? Autumn 2000 Financial Services Review, Volume 9, Issue 3. Pp. 277-293.

[3] Shocker, Allan, Ben-Akiva, Moshe, Boccara, Bruno and Nedungadi, Prakash. 1991. Consideration Set Influences on Consumer Decision-Making and Choice: Issues, Models, and Suggestions. Marketing Letters: A Journal of Research in Marketing, Vol. 2, No. 3: 181-197.

How Bringing a Multimillion-Dollar Jet Through the Streets of Las Vegas Created a Niche Market

In Order to Create a Niche Market, You Have to Take Risks and Dare to be First

In 2015, I was sitting in the back of a brand new Dodge Ram at 11 PM at the McCarran Airport in Las Vegas trying to stay warm. It was freezing to the point where it snowed the next day. I was wearing multiple layers because I was about to walk with a newly refurbished multimillion-dollar jet through the streets of Vegas. My company was displaying this aircraft inside of the convention hall during our largest trade show of the year. Actually, NBAA is one of the largest trade shows in the US attracting owners, pilots, mechanics, and industry leaders from all over the world. I was pretty terrified because this was the first time I had ever done anything like this. Although I was confident we had a great product, there was no way of knowing if the major risk we took as a company was going to pay off.

This wasn’t just my first time. To my knowledge, this was also the first time anyone had displayed a jet of this size inside of the convention hall, so we didn’t really have the proxy to measure our success. I had a major case of imposter syndrome. At this show, we were competing with huge companies like Bombardier, Textron, Gulfstream, and Dassault. How could we compete with multibillion-dollar companies and stand out? They have teams of people who are much smarter and more capable than me.

My mind was racing and I was nervous about all of the things I couldn’t control. What if they didn’t measure the traffic signals properly and the tail runs into a stoplight? What if the belly scrapes coming out of the airport ramp onto the street? What if the tow bar head damages the landing gear? What if they couldn’t get it in the hall? (To be fair, the wingspan was larger than the opening of the door, so that last concern was somewhat legitimate.) I ordered carpet to be laid after the aircraft arrived so it didn’t get chewed up from a jet rolling over it. How was that even going to work? Did I order enough spotlights? No matter how nervous I was, it didn’t matter. All of the hard work, engineering, and craftsmanship that went into this airplane; now it was my job to make it pay off at the trade show. I had to stay confident and let all of the months of planning pay off. Our team had imagined this concept over a year ago and it was finally time to execute.

They opened the north gate at the airport. Since we were the biggest airplane, we were the last in line and we would be the last ones in the hall. After waiting nearly an hour for the caravan of airplanes to progress far enough to where we could actually get out of the gate, we were finally on the road. The Nevada State Highway Patrol was providing an escort, blocking the streets in front and behind the caravan as we slowly made our way up Paradise Road.

Nearly three hours later, we arrived at the Las Vegas Convention Center. We sat outside for a few hours as each airplane was carefully brought onto the trade show floor by a special tug which was operated by a guy that flew in from the UK. An hour and a half after we attached the airplane to the special tug, we were placed in the hall, ready for finishing touches before the show.

Creating the Niche Market

So, how did we arrive at the Las Vegas convention center with a refurbished jet? Was it just to display our quality of work? Was it just to be noticed? No, we were creating a niche market. To be successful in a niche market, you have to have a team that is willing to take huge risks to create an outstanding product at a reasonable price. You work together to create the niche. That makes the advertising pretty easy. Let me explain.

The Problem

Garmin was launching a new avionics program, known as the G5000, for a light jet called a Beechjet 400A (and the newer iteration, the Hawker 400XP). Our company was and still is, the industry’s leading Garmin retrofitter. So much so, that we have done more Garmin retrofits in King Air turboprops than all other dealers in the world, combined. However, this was the very first jet that would be certified for a Garmin retrofit, so transitioning from our expertise in King Airs to Jets was critical. We needed to leverage our experience in completing large Garmin retrofits to a completely new niche. This new market had a different type of buyer, with different buying behaviors. Although the audience was small (this system applied to less than 600 airplanes across the world), even conservative projections for the overall market saturation rate and our projected market share made financial sense for us to pursue this niche.

In our industry, being the first to complete a major project like this particular Garmin retrofit was critical. The business aviation community is small. Since our brand was so closely aligned with Garmin, an early lead in a new niche would establish credibility with the new target audience and lead to early success. Once that credibility caught on, we would be hard to catch.

Why This Niche Made Sense

As stated, we were Garmin’s largest aftermarket dealer and as they expanded into new niche markets, we wanted to expand with them and maintain our position as the industry leader. This market made further sense because we were an authorized service center for this kind of aircraft and we had many maintenance technicians that had 20+ years of experience working with the airplane. As a one-stop-shop, we would also be able to handle any avionics, maintenance, paint, interior, or landing gear overhauls the customer might need when receiving a large retrofit.

Action – The Big Risk to Be First

I remember the meeting. We were all sitting around the small conference room table discussing how we were going to become industry leaders. If we wanted to be the frontrunners, we would have to take some major risks. If we were going to pursue this niche and be the first to market, everyone who owned this type of aircraft, and everyone in the industry would need to know how serious we were.

“What if we bought an airplane, completed all of the refurbishments, brought it down the street, and parked it inside the convention hall?” The room got quiet. I don’t remember who asked the question, whether it was me or one of our other team members. It didn’t really matter because we were all thinking the same thing, but we knew there were huge risks. We would have the initial multimillion-dollar risk of the acquisition cost of the airplane. We would have additional costs tied up in the refurbishment. We would also have the opportunity cost of turning away some customers for the number of hours that this refurbishment required.

Although we knew there would be major risks, we knew there would be huge rewards. In addition to being able to sell the airplane after the show, if we succeeded in receiving several orders for the Garmin system at the trade show, we would have a major lead in the industry. As stated earlier, a head start in this program was all we needed.

For this November trade show, we started sourcing an aircraft in late spring. We found a 2006 Hawker 400XP, but the challenge with this airplane was that it needed engine overhauls. This added a major expense and additional downtime in our already compressed timeframe. Despite the challenges, we purchased the aircraft and began work. The entire scope of work included a major inspection, engine overhauls, Garmin G5000 avionics retrofit, special Vegas gold pearl paint job, and a refurbished, weight-saving interior with WiFi and color-changing LED lighting.

Marketing Actions to This Niche

From a marketing perspective, the biggest goal was to create an associative network in potential customers’ minds linking our name with the new Garmin G5000 system in this particular aircraft (Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP). This type of plan involves understanding how the brain works and how an associative network influences retrieval. As marketers, we know several things about this type of network. The first, and most obvious, is that stronger links are more accessible. That’s why we try to strengthen the links between brands (in this case, we were trying to strengthen the association with the Garmin brand).

Good marketers also know that there is a spreading activation effect, which allows for the free association between like-products. For instance, when you think of BMW, you may think of luxury cars. As another German brand, you may think of Mercedes or Audi. However, due to the luxury nature, you may also think about Rolex. Your brain could also think about leather. By putting a top-of-the-line avionics system in a pristine looking airplane, we were building a spreading activation centered around the Garmin system but also associated with “the best” quality. This included the best quality Garmin installation, but the best quality paint, interior, and engineering.

We also know that there is a sleeper effect, meaning that the actual message stays tied to recall much longer than the recall of the source of the information. Basically, I wanted to create a plan where we were seen as the experts in any and all sources that I could use.

So, to the best of my recollection five years later, here’s what we did.

Public Relations

There were several hooks that we identified in this story that made it interesting to the press. The first, and most obvious, was that we were the first Garmin dealer in the world that was going to attempt this type of retrofit. Even before the project started, we took the risk and committed to being the first dealer to deliver. That alone got the attention of the press in our industry. However, to truly make a good story before launching the PR strategy, we had to fully develop the five basic elements of the story. By committing to purchase an airplane and displaying it in Vegas in a short time frame, we had all of the components we needed. We had the characters (our team and brand), setting (Vegas), plot (buying and retrofitting an airplane with something that had not been done before), conflict (short time frame), and the resolution (successfully completed everything).

Once we developed the story arc, we sent and press releases and landed coverage with industry publications from the day the airplane was purchased. Our initial press release outlined our entire plan. We then had follow-up press releases that highlighted when we started the avionics system, and when the aircraft delivered.

From the day the first press release was sent, the top publication in our industry ran a feature on the project. The subsequent releases were also picked up by several other outlets. From a PR standpoint, all of the major trade publications wanted to know more and track the progress of the project. During the trade show, we had several articles published in the daily publications. Media outlets also conducted video interviews with our team members going over the project details.

After the show, there were residual public relations opportunities which included press releases when we sold the aircraft and after each milestone delivery (the first company to five installs, first to 10, 20, etc.)

VIP Event

We set up a cocktail event for owners and operators of this type of aircraft where they could come by at a certain time and have a drink on us. This was exclusive to our industry partners as well as owners and operators of this type of aircraft.

Digital Advertising

Our team developed a digital strategy to target operators of this type of aircraft via email prior to the show to let them know what all was included in the aircraft upgrade, where they could find us, and when they could attend our VIP event. We also created a preview video on YouTube and targeted our customers through YouTube ads.

We also set up retargeting ads to any viewer that visited our G5000 page and targeted emails to anyone who had visited this page a certain number of times.

Direct Mail

Our team designed eight-page brochures introducing the new system. To add to the feeling of luxury, we used a combination of soft-touch and high-gloss UV coatings. We had also mailed special invitations to our target audience including VIP identifiers to attend our VIP trade show event.

Social Media

Social media posts were scheduled before, during, and after the event on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Posts were boosted to the target demographic.

Result

Although we were all nervous about the huge risk that we were taking, this series of events of buying and retrofitting the airplane had major rewards. Prior to the system even being certified, we were able to pre-sell a dozen Garmin G5000 retrofits, which was more than all other dealers in the world combined. From the very beginning of this program, our team put a considerable amount of effort to be the industry leaders. However, it was not the result of just one series of actions. It took our entire company to believe that we could do it. When diving into a project of this magnitude, the first thing you have to do is believe that you can do it. With the entire company behind the success of the program, we were able to create a great niche market, one that has now ballooned nearly 30 systems sold, which again, is more than all other dealers in the world, combined. Throughout this process, we also found an opportunity within the LED lighting market. We have since created and now manufacture LED aircraft lighting and currently have 13 US dealers.

What I Learned

Building a niche market involves creating a product that truly connects with your target audience. Your market can be incredibly small. In this case, there were less than 600 potential customers in the entire world. However, the financial case for us to pursue this market made sense and it perfectly fit our brand. When you create a niche, what you are selling will apply only to a small group of people, and that’s okay. The bottom line is this: create something of incredible value to your audience that no one else can provide.

You can find out more about niche marketing here.