---
title: "The First Pitfall of Niche Marketing: Mistaking Segmentation for Niche"
description: "Niche products naturally carry topics, which is precious in an era of information overload and scarce attention. The brand advocacy brought by niche will be the brand's greatest asset in the future."
author: "苗庆显"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2018-07-26"
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# The First Pitfall of Niche Marketing: Mistaking Segmentation for Niche

> Niche products naturally carry topics, which is precious in an era of information overload and scarce attention. The brand advocacy brought by niche will be the brand's greatest asset in the future.

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Introduction
**Niche products naturally carry topics, which is precious in an era of information overload and scarce attention. The brand advocacy brought by niche will be the brand's greatest asset in the future.**
**1**
A few days ago, a young woman came to my office.
Old Miao was brewing tea, so he poured her a cup and showed off: "A friend gave me this Fu tea; try it?"
The young woman was very touched, then declined. She took out a bottle of Xiao Ming Tong Xue from her bag and said, "I'll drink this."
Old Miao once again deeply felt the "sadness" of being "looked down upon" by young people, but fortunately, it solved a problem that had been troubling me.
In recent years, there has been much discussion about "mass marketing" and "niche marketing," with some even claiming "mass is dead." However, there has been no precise definition of "niche marketing," and many misleading ideas have emerged.
Some say that a large market size is "mass," and a small market size is "niche." This is too vague and useless.
Some believe it is market segmentation under positioning theory, targeting a single group and emphasizing focus, such as Coca-Cola's Coke Zero. This is the most common misconception in the market.
According to this logic, drugs for diabetes, tumors, and hypertension, and even all drugs, are for specific groups, making them "niche products." All functional foods would also be niche products, and infant formula would be a "niche product" too.
Others think that specific consumption scenarios are "niche," which is a misinterpretation of scenarios. Requiring a one-to-one or even one-to-many association between a product and a specific consumption scenario is still the logic of market segmentation. Just because the corresponding scenario is small does not make it "niche." Is Xiang Piao Piao's "little hungry, little sleepy" niche? Does Red Bull's "thirsty and tired" count? What about Nutrition Express's "drink one in the morning, energetic all morning"? The more specific the scenario, the larger the sales volume, which has nothing to do with mass or niche.
**2**
Specific groups and specific scenarios should not be the criteria for judging "niche." Similarly, small categories are not, such as the vitamin candy Old Miao once operated, the turtle jelly and egg yolk pastry mentioned above—they are not niche; they still follow mass logic. Moreover, the market size of "niche" is not necessarily small. So what is "niche"? The young woman who wanted to drink "Xiao Ming Tong Xue" gave a clear answer (not a definition):
**A product that users can use to identify themselves as different from the mass is a niche product. This difference is not physiological or material, but spiritual and cognitive. Its possible sources are threefold: 1. Shared subculture; 2. Similar values; 3. Resonance of interests and hobbies.**
Marketing targeted at niche products is naturally niche marketing.
**3**
Why is niche marketing so popular? First, the world has truly changed: **the weakening of centralized media and centralized business districts has weakened the force demanding uniformity. The expression of commonality is weakening, and personalized expression is beginning to shine.**
Old Miao mentioned earlier:
**The product logic of "one Spring Festival Gala satisfying the whole nation" is no longer applicable. Setting up N consumers and N consumption scenarios for products and communication methods will become increasingly inefficient.**
**The fragmentation of the entire society has led to the so-called "mass" consumers no longer existing in many aspects: many people hope to have places that distinguish them from mainstream society or culture. In today's society, everyone is "non-mainstream."**
**Everyone is unique. Even an ordinary-looking person must have thoughts that differ from the mass. The more ordinary a person is, the stronger their desire to show their "uniqueness" often is.**
In the older generation, two good sisters shopping would like to buy clothes of the same style and color; now "matching outfits with a bestie" is like a "mental car accident."
In addition, compared to the mass, **niche has a natural huge advantage: communication advantage. This is extremely important in an era of massive information and scarce attention.**
Let me give two examples from my own experience.
Old Miao is a theater fan. Since my teens, I have listened to masters like Ma Lianliang, Tan Fuying, and Mei Lanfang. After more than 30 years, I can sing a few lines. So from junior high school to work, occasionally encountering a group cultural performance, I would go up and sing a line. Although I had few opportunities to show it and basically no one understood, it left a deep impression. So from childhood to adulthood, people around me, including relatives, friends, classmates, and colleagues, all knew that "Old Miao can sing opera." "Can sing opera" became an important label for Old Miao, which spread much better than singing or dancing. Now Old Miao's biggest personal wish is to organize a theater group to sing after retirement.
Second, I am a non-strict vegetarian. So every time I eat, if there are friends who are meeting me for the first time or don't know me well, it becomes a natural topic: Why don't you eat meat? What faith do you have? Do you drink milk and eat eggs? Don't you crave it? Will you lack nutrition? Does your family also eat vegetarian...
So now I avoid gatherings as much as possible, and I don't even declare that I'm vegetarian; I just sit there, eat less, and pick some vegetarian dishes. **Niche naturally carries topics. For individuals, this is a trouble, but for products and brands, it is a huge advantage.**
**4**
**Niche products also have the most powerful advantage: they are easier to turn into fans.**
In Kotler's "Marketing 4.0," the original AIDA rule (Attention-Interest-Desire-Action) has become **5A, namely "Aware-Appeal-Ask-Act-Advocate," which is the most fundamental change in consumer behavior.**
The important elements added are "Ask" and "Advocate." And "**Advocate**" will replace the "brand loyalty" that has been used for decades.
Fans will invest enormous enthusiasm in the brands they advocate, even to the point of devotion.
During Xiaomi's IPO, Lei Jun's trilogy of communications: the speech at Wuhan University, the open letter "Who is Xiaomi," and the documentary "A Flame," each exploded on the internet, and his massive advocates played a key role.
When "A Flame" was flooding screens, Old Miao was also shocked. I reposted it on Moments and added a comment: "I thought Lei Jun was a knockoff Steve Jobs, but he turned out to be the Chinese Steve Jobs." This made a certain Lei fan unhappy, who commented: "Steve Jobs is great, but Lei Jun is Lei Jun," and then added many of Lei Jun's achievements, writing two long comments.
**The idle chatter among a brand's fans, neutrals, and detractors happens spontaneously and is more effective than advertising. The degree of advocacy from your fans will become the greatest asset for measuring a brand.**
**The last huge advantage of niche brands is greater brand extensibility. When you have a group of fans who highly identify with your brand culture and share your values, you can break through category limitations and more easily extend to other areas for success.**
Jobless (Steve Jobs) said "marketing is about values." Those "crazy ones, the ones who are committed to changing the world" are qualified to own an Apple computer. Then Jobless did it—**the phone**.
The debate between Xiaomi and the positioning school has a long history. According to a positioning guru, Xiaomi should stick to phones and doing anything else is nonsense. Xiaomi once fell into such confusion, but facts have proven that Xiaomi's extension is correct. Positioning theory is not wrong, but the positioning gurus who predicted Xiaomi's decline clearly used mass marketing logic to measure niche marketing.
Niche marketing has so many advantages, but this kind of niche marketing based on culture and ideology is not common, at least not many are done well. How to do niche marketing, and where are the opportunities for mass marketing in the era of niche marketing? Old Miao will discuss these in the next few articles with you.
Source: Old Miao Tears Marketing (ID: yiheyingxiao)
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