Why specialize OR FIND A NICHE?

In marketing, it is often recommended that a company specialize to 'target' a specific niche of clients. I think this can be effective for many companies because they can narrow their market thereby gaining name recognition, credibility, marketing focus or 'vertical marketing' which takes less time to promote and generates more sales. However, newer companies (1-5 years of growth) need a certain amount of growth time and experience, and it's invaluable to explore offering all their talents, products or services to anyone they feel could benefit. This is how one learns which market(s) to focus on ultimately.

While it might ultimately slow down their focus on a more profitable niche, it allows a company to explore what THEY like to do, what services or products THEY most enjoy offering, enables them to get staff trained, systems worked out to fulfill their offerings as efficiently and affordably as possible, gives them time to hone those products and most importantly -- to get client feedback, so that when they do decide to find a particular market, they have finessed how they'll deliver their service or work the kinks out of their products.

Client feedback is the key to positioning, helping companies stand out from the crowd, know what to say to promote their services or products and it can actually be as much fun as it is valuable. Our knowledge is bliss package offers just that, when a company is ready for it: href="http://www.allisonbliss.com/services">


STIFLING A BUSINESS IS LIKE STIFLING A CHILD
Just as a parent wouldn't stifle a child from trying baseball, soccer, tetherball, and ice skating, I think a marketing director/consultant or coach shouldn't pressure a growing company to 'play pro baseball' or 'target in one specialty' until they've had time to play the field a bit. I'd like to hear from business owners who have had this advice to squelch their offerings too soon and find out what happened to you. That might just be the subject of one of my next articles.

Look forward to your comments, Allison Bliss