Marketing Headhunter.com: Ten "Must Ask" Questions to Target a Niche Market

ROME, ITALY - Since 1980, Roberto Spizzichino has been hand hammering cymbals. He's self taught. Nowadays, he's like the Pablo Picasso of cymbal making -- an artist whose 22" ride cymbal sells for three or four times as much as the second highest quality 22" ride on the market. His customers like Brian Blade (free MP3 downloads) are rabid fans, and they're passionate to the point of insane about his work. As is he.

According to Mr. Spizzichino,

While I'm making the cymbal, I take the cymbal home ... and while I'm eating dinner, I put the cymbal on the table and I put some light on it to study the hammering, because I need to understand what I have done. ... To really understand the quality of the cymbal, I have to use it ... to know him. I say "him" because I feel like it's a person. I would really like to ask him: "What can I do for YOU -- to find a way to perfect YOU?"

Jeez, that's the ultimate good experience. Can you imagine putting this much love into your product? Do you care that much?? Before you say "Well, that's totally impractical!" remember Ducati motorcycles, Martin Guitars, or Vacheron Constantin watches. You can't be all things to all people, but you can make a difference in the lives of a market of self-selecting aficionados.

And we do exist.

As an aside, cymbalholics (like me) are twisted freaks. We can listen to our cymbals for hours and almost prayerfully discern every tiny little overtone the instrument has to offer -- at every volume imaginable. Two weeks ago I bought this cymbal after weeks of intense research and reflection about "my sound" and what I wanted the cymbal to do. For the first two days I owned it, I simply clobbered the crap out of it to "break it in." It sounds better to me now than the day I bought it, but to my wife upstairs watching TV, it just sounds obnoxious. I'm textbook rabid -- the kind of knucklehead who would actually want to buy this drumset. Restraint ...

So how can you target a rabid customer niche? Here are ten questions you must answer:

Do you have an affinity with the market? Are you one of them? Were you one of them? Do you really understand them? How much do you really know about a market? If you cannot answer this question, then you have no hope of ever developing a resonant product for this market. Spizzichino was a working jazz drummer before he hammered his first cymbal. "To sell John Smith what John Smith buys, you must first see the world through John Smith's eyes."
Are they passionate about what they’re doing? Bass fishermen, golfers, and brides-to-be are classic examples of rabid markets. Lawyers and accountants are not. However, haute horology aficionados are such purists that there's a demand for a super-ultra high end watch that can't be counterfeited. Now there's a market! Crazy rich people.

As a recruiter, I'm very familiar with the government's career site O'Net Online. As a marketer, I appreciate the ease with which marketers can do a simple skills search on O'Net to see which professions are comprised of which personality types. For example, there appears to be 50 or so professions for "persuasive service providers." If those are the types of personalities you want to target, then simply grab an SRDS book and brainstorm ways to market to those industries.

Can you arouse their emotions? What keeps them awake at night? Can you sell your product on the back of a single, compelling, believable story? Do not enter a niche if you cannot answer this question! People buy feelings, not features. The answer to this question must influence your product design and your marketing.
Who or what are they MAD at? In the words of rock icon Henry Rollins, "Nothing brings people together more than a mutual hatred." Just look at liberals of all stripes bound by a visceral dislike of President Bush. Seriously, if you know what makes someone really mad, then you can align with them against that thing and sell them your product. Direct marketers have been doing this for decades.
What are their top three daily frustrations? What does a day in their life look like? How can you improve it? Be prepared to be specific.
Are they reachable? This goes way beyond Adwords. Where do they hang out, online and offline? According to the Magazine Publishers of America, there are 22,652 magazines for the U.S. market. Friends, magazines can be an awesomely effective way to reach your niche! You can rent their lists through the SRDS. My goodness, you should do this!! Microsites (and squeeze pages) specifically connected with your classified ads can dramatically boost response rates. Believe me, I have had a ton of success with this tactic. Simply contact the ad sales desk of your target publication and ask for a media kit, along with a complementary issue of the magazine. As you look at the magazine and its website, ask yourself: "Do these folks look rabid?? Or do they look dull, boring, and institutional??"
What do they secretly desire most? I have always liked Humanityquest as a resource for both understanding the range of human emotion, and as a tool for helping me write copy that stirs up certain emotions in my target reader.
Is there a built-in bias to the way they make decisions? Are they analytical, impulsive, or computer-driven? Do they have their own vocabulary? Every subculture has its own language.
How do they talk to each other? How frequent and intense is that communication? Online communities are obvious signs of rabidity -- as is their incidence of product reviews and comments on each others' blogs and forums. Your best subcultures are self-referencing. IE, they talk to each other. So be prepared to walk their talk.
What trends are effecting them? What justifies your being there at this moment in time?