In the Era of Niche Brands, Marketing Is Becoming More Precisely Targeted

In recent years, brand customization has quietly become a trend. Celebrities attending events no longer compete on brand names but on customization. Walking into a mall, the words "personalized customization" on some brand counters tell people: "In addition to selling, we can also offer personalized services!" Niche branding is becoming a new consumer concept. Quality is no longer about being covered in logos but about aligning with one's personality.

Marketing trends towards precision in the era of niche brands
 

In the mobile internet era, the post-90s generation has taken the stage as consumers, and their consumption concepts are subtly changing. New generation brands are taking shape, and whether a brand has personality and aligns with personal preferences is becoming increasingly important.

In recent years, brand customization has quietly become a trend. Celebrities attending events no longer compete on brand names but on customization. Walking into a mall, the words "personalized customization" on some brand counters tell people: "In addition to selling, we can also offer personalized services!" Some luxury brands that previously followed a mass-market approach have also abandoned the pursuit of scale, opting for niche routes to meet the needs of certain consumers with personalized products. Niche branding is becoming a new consumer concept. People are increasingly realizing that quality is not about being covered in logos but about aligning with one's personality.

Many logo brands abroad are highly personalized, although they may not have a large influence, they are very popular among consumers.

Niche branding is both a return to consumer philosophy and an inevitable development in the new market environment. Niche brands efficiently allocate market resources and redefine the market through community engagement.

Niche branding is the future trend of brand development

The development of the internet, especially mobile internet, has diversified shopping channels while also decentralizing traditional marketing methods. Many traditional sales markets have been diverted, and marketing channels have weakened. However, this weakening has promoted market segmentation. Decentralized marketing has caused some brands to lose their markets while allowing others to find theirs. These brands often win with distinct characteristics, quickly gaining development by targeting specific markets or consumer groups.

In the face of the internet's impact, operating physical stores has become increasingly difficult, with rising rent and personnel costs gradually increasing their share in operating costs. The convergence of brand styles and reduced differentiation has weakened the competitive power of physical store brands while also causing consumer loss. In this context, for physical stores to achieve growth, pursuing brand personalization has become the only way for their development.

In contrast, in mature consumer markets like Paris or Milan, small specialty stores, although also impacted by supermarkets, are thriving. Why? These stores have their own survival strategies, whether through warm in-store decorations, carefully arranged products, or a shopping experience rich in human touch that attracts customers, making them willing to pay 20% more for products than in supermarkets.

Moreover, the innovation opportunity for physical stores lies in how to sell a lifestyle. In Tokyo, lifestyle stores can even sell books, with the lines between restaurants, cafes, bookstores, clothing stores, and home goods stores becoming increasingly blurred.

In the past, people thought that opening an online store on Taobao would quickly grow due to the customer traffic from the platform, but now people realize that selling products online is just as challenging as operating a physical store; the traffic dividend period for Taobao has passed. Taobao was established in 2003, and when there were not many merchants, it provided significant traffic benefits to merchants and supported many "Tao brands." However, as more merchants joined, traffic on Taobao became dispersed, and the traffic for "Tao brands" was diluted, making it increasingly difficult for merchants to grow, with profits becoming thinner.

Looking at the development of foreign e-commerce brands, targeting a specific demographic with distinctive brands attracts customers, following a personalized route rather than a price-based one. This not only ensures a stable customer base but also guarantees a higher product premium. The current development status of domestic e-commerce is such that continuing down this path without distinctive products will lead to increasingly thin profits in price wars; to achieve growth, one must follow a niche route.

Thus, it is evident that pursuing mass-market appeal is increasingly unable to meet market demands and has become an obstacle for some brands to maintain growth. In the new market development environment, it has become difficult for brands to earn money from the majority; they can only target a specific group, cater to their preferences, and meet their needs to ensure brand development.

Niche brands foster consumer communities

One of the important elements of social influence mentioned in Robert Cialdini's book "Influence" is social proof, meaning that if a statement, event, or product gains recognition from people, it will have a significant impact. Recognition comes from shared interests, and niche brands cater to the interests of a specific group, thereby gaining their recognition, acquiring brand influence, and capturing market share.

In the internet age, people's social interactions are becoming increasingly internet-based. A social networking tool, such as Weibo, WeChat, or QQ, allows people to connect with more individuals who share similar interests. Social tools act as a large magnet, attracting countless users who gather together due to their shared love for these tools, forming a large community. Within this large community, each individual is a small magnet, attracting others with similar interests, forming smaller communities.

Niche brands bring together people from different dimensions who share common interests, values, and lifestyles, forming a community around the niche brand. There is a saying that everyone has a tribal complex in their hearts, and niche brands evoke this complex, giving rise to a unique emotional appeal towards the brand, treating it as a belonging to their interests.

Niche brands pursue a community economy, which is a way for brands to efficiently allocate resources in the market. Before the emergence of niche brands, market share was concentrated among some mass brands. After the emergence of niche brands, the market has been occupied by numerous niche brands, leading to fragmented development, with niche brands redefining the market through community engagement.

This is an era of niche brands

Marketing trends towards precision in the era of niche brands

Niche brands are adept at analyzing consumer behavior, and their clear market positioning ensures that they have a defined consumer group. These consumers, due to their shared love for niche brands, also make the marketing of these brands more precise. Niche brands know who their customers are, thus achieving higher marketing efficiency. Niche brands do not need to spend heavily on advertising; they just need to focus on refining their brand to gain consumer favor and loyalty.

In the past, advertising on television could generally meet product promotion needs, but with the diversification of communication methods, simply advertising on television can no longer satisfy product promotion needs. Just advertising on television is like using a cannon to shoot mosquitoes, yielding minimal results. Today's advertising placements emphasize user precision; integrated marketing across all media follows a niche route, pursuing precision. It is said that the U.S. attack on Iraq was not carried out by a large group but by small teams of about a dozen people, first identifying the enemy and then notifying headquarters to launch strikes. The niche route has made even warfare more precise.

The world's second-largest publicly traded tobacco company, British American Tobacco, also follows a niche route in brand management. Its leading international brands include 555, Kent, Dunhill, Hilton, Governor, Cartier, Lucky Strike, Dunhill, and Black Cat.

These brands target different markets with different products, broadly categorized into three types: the first type is international brands, such as 555, Kent, and Lucky Strike, which are bestsellers in over a hundred countries and are the core of British American Tobacco's business and profit source; the second type is regional brands, such as some brands produced by British American Tobacco in Europe and some in Brazil; the third type consists of brands sold only in one country or region, such as "Black Cat" and "Gentleman Bamboo" produced in joint ventures in China.

By targeting different demographics with different products, British American Tobacco has accurately captured its customers. Currently, the development of e-cigarettes in the UK is rapid, with statistics showing that users can choose from 466 e-cigarette brands and 7,764 flavors on English websites, indicating the extent of niche branding in the UK's e-cigarette market.

The arrival of the mobile internet era has provided a broader platform for the precise marketing of niche brands. In the past, physical niche brands might only "lock in" a portion of customers passing by, and if those customers found the niche brand's style too unique and not to their liking, the survival of physical niche brands would face challenges.

This characteristic does not apply to the internet; the internet faces consumers from all over the country. Even if most people do not like it, as long as there is a small portion of people in each area who recognize a niche brand, that niche brand can survive and thrive. The characteristics of precise marketing for niche brands can quickly attract consumers who recognize them online.

There is a saying: "Too many choices can blind the eyes, too many sounds can deafen the ears, and too many flavors can spoil the palate." Sometimes, having too many choices can lead to indecision; it is better to "take one sip from the vast waters." Today, the market has shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market. Consumers' demands for products are no longer just about whether they are brand names but about whether the brand has personality and suits their taste.

As consumers become more "demanding," they also raise higher expectations for brands. In the future, brands without style will lose customers, while those with style will only attract a portion of customers. The future of brand development will be based on the balance between these two aspects, and the era of "small" brands is approaching.