How To Find Your Market Niche

Pilita Corrales was in Greenhills when an idea clicked: Why not set up a place to catch the Music Museum crowd? With her husband Carlos Lopez and some partners, she started Kookabar which in February 2006 evolved to what is now Pilita’s, the Planet Hollywood of San Juan, and the “in” resto where patrons are serenaded with A Million Thanks To You by Asia’s Queen of Songs.

Your home is where you belongs and your niche is where is your business should be. 

A niche is your “Corner of the sky,” to quote Basil Valdez, and your “Place in this world,” to quote Michael W. Smith. 

Here are the arrows to find your market based on Secrets To Dominate Your Niche by Thomas Fernandez (who was in Manila recently to promote this book) and Sant Qui.

Understand clearly why you’re doing that thing you do. Floy Quintos and Karla Gutierrez, director of the Phil. Opera Co., staged Giacommo Puccini’s masterpiece La Boheme at the CCP with clear objectives aside from capturing the AB audience: promoting opera to today’s generation and showcasing the world-class talents of Filipino classical artists.

Go for the big time one step at a time. Cora Simpson’s manufacturing firm in Johannesburg is modest compared to her competitor’s in a contest that could make her career, but she’s the one who drew up Zakumi, the leopard with a green Afro – and now the official mascot of the 2010 World Cup in Africa.

Take your passion and make it happen. Richard Merk’s passion for jazz fueled his musical career, and seeing the success of the famed Calesa Bar on Roxas Blvd. during the ’80s inspired him to set up Merk’s Bar & Bistro at the Greenbelt 3, now the premier watering-hole for celebrities and heavy-duty music buffs.

Make sure you’ll make money. Dr. Vicki Belo formed the Belo Medical Group Inc. to meet the growing cosmetic needs of high-end clients, and also with the long-term aim of capturing the wave of the future: the medical tourism market. Her marketing techniques made cosmetic surgery, once taboo, a fashion statement. Used to be, “I like to thank Fanny Serrano for my make-up.” Now, it’s “I like to thank Dr. Vicki for my face.”

That about sums up what we’re talking about. It’s simply finding a need – a niche – and filling it.

(Watch niche marketing on the Internet video. Photo courtesy of PLReBookClub. Your comments are welcome and will be answered. You can link your blog with EasyHyperLinks)