Why is Niching Important

Launching into promotional activities when you haven’t yet finalised your strategy and brand plan is a classic mistake that I see early-stage businesses making.

To achieve success more quickly and reduce wasted resources it’s best to avoid spending money on large scale promotional activities before you’ve determined strategic issues, such as what your niche and positioning will be.

The importance of niching, and what that means in practice is something many business owners overlook because they don’t really understand what ‘brand’ and ‘IP’ mean and entail for business. Issues like positioning, and niching are a fundamental aspect of this. Not addressing them early on is one reason there is such a high failure rate among new businesses.

If your website or brochure lists a host of services instead of prominently identifying the one you want to be known for, you paradoxically reduce your opportunities.

The fear is that niching will be limiting, that you will not be able to expand beyond your initial chosen area. However, going narrow is what gives you a chance to get cut through and traction. The objective should be to get lift off initially.

Think how Amazon started in the bookselling niche. It took several years to establish itself before the company moved on to become the ‘everything store’. We may still associate Amazon with books, due to its initial focus, but that hasn’t stopped the company offering many other goods apart from books, nor does it stop us buying a host of things from them as well as books.

Having run my own business for more than 17 years and been its chief marketer, I’ve learned a thing or two about business, mainly through my own mistakes, although there are many lessons that I’ve learnt from other peoples’ mistakes too.

One thing I know, is that offering the full range of services without focusing on one, slows you down, and can lead to business failure for those without the cash reserves to withstand the consequences of their wasted expenditure.

Better education on brand creation is needed so founders get more clarity to develop their strategy and brand plan before launching into expensive promotional activities.

It’s an important value of mine to foster greater business success, and reduce business failure. That’s why I’ve introduced the Brand Tuned Accreditation program.

The multi-disciplinary syllabus encompasses IP, marketing, business, and distinctiveness, as these are all relevant when branding a business. The course is suitable for brand creators, whether founders, graphic designers, marketers, or IP or corporate lawyers.

So far, we’ve had marketers, and lawyers sign up to do the course. I’m hoping designers and founders will also enrol before the course starts in September.