Market segmentation and branding content franchises
Today, I thought I’d share an excerpt from the upcoming book “Ecommerce Well A collection of online business ideas”
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INTRODUCTION
Teutonic shifts in the economic landscape are in the process of exposing major business opportunities. This short book is a very quick primer on a cross section of key ideas, concepts, and trends sweeping the Net.
Ideas as disparate as viral marketing, niche micro production, or social networking are included. This short book even touches upon creative ways to approach business models.
Hopefully, it presents ideas and trends in a simple manner, in a way accessible to the entrepreneur in all of us. As one reads about the (sometimes profound) trends sweeping the net, it may allow, in some way, for one to glimpse a crystal ball of poignant possibilities. This work consists of a listing and elaboration of (sometimes very) different topics.
MARKET SEGMENTATION
A market segment for a marketer is a discreet identiï¬able clustering of customers into a block with similar characteristics. For example, work-at-home moms starting their own business or Asian customers, aged 21-25, playing video games may be examples of market segments. Dramatic trends, driven in part by technology, are affecting how some marketers are viewing market segmentation. The marketable customer blocks appear to breaking up into smaller blocks or segmenting themselves further in a dramatic fashion.
To try to understand this it may be useful to observe trends in the television and magazine businesses.
In the early 1950s and 1960s in the United States, these emerging markets were dominated by large corporations. A handful of TV stations controlled most of the viewing market. Likewise, magazines like “Life†had dominant positions in their markets. By the turn of the century, however, numerous cable and satellite TV stations had craved out substantial market share. If one went to a news stand, instead of being greeted by a small handful of magazines, one was greeted by a large number of magazines all seemingly catering to different interests.
Instead of treating the American consumer as one monolithic individual that only had a small set of tastes, the market had evolved, catering to the various ethnic, linguistic, and demographic sub markets. Instead of “one size ï¬ tting all,†offerings were increasingly customized to different subgroups and interests within the American population. For example, in cable, CNN offered 24-hour round-the-clock news catering to people who needed their news all the time (“24/7 news watchersâ€).
With the advent of the Internet, this market segmentation into subgroups is in the process of exploding. Instead of 100 satellite TV stations, hundreds of thousands of specialist websites are sprouting up. This is an exponential, teutonic shift in content customized for individual tastes.
While previously dominant “traditional†TV stations appear have steadily lost “overall†market share, as the internet begins to revolutionize our habits we are likely to see continuing erosion of “overall†market share by the “traditional†methods. Instead of the market existing in large blocks of continuous viewers, trends suggest this will invariably become increasingly fragmented.
Note: Of course, it does not necessarily follow that entities like “traditional†TV will become less proï¬table. After all, the “traditional†movie business did not have to become less proï¬ table with the advent of the video cassette tape. “Entertainment†has been around for a long time, and people have always found ways to monetize it. TV content creators with successful, core competencies in creating popular programming do have the option of intelligently entering new markets.
CREATING A BRAND AROUND MICRO MARKET COLLECTIONS
One example of a company that has tried to capitalize on this new fragmentation is www. about.com. About.com has specialists who create content in micro niche markets such as taxes.about.com and graphicdesign.about.com. Each submarket also receives ad revenue (like traditional TV stations). By trying to control quality and harmonize systems in a system of submarket content information, they are trying to enhance value to the about.com brand. Look to companies to try to build a “brand†around a collection of micro content properties. These content properties could include text, audio, and video and multimedia.
“Branded†content collections that help viewers ï¬lter through the explosion of information are likely to develop.
MASSIVE MARKET SEGMENTATION
We still have not seen the real explosion and domination of the micro niche in the TV space. This is likely to happen very soon as technologies l for viewing “TV†over the internet) are incorporated into the family “TV†room. The “killer app†that is like to be the catalyst is the one that changes the lowly â€remote control†in the average American’s living room. When one can press the “up channel†and “down channel†buttons in the “remote control†and the proverbial “couch potato†is not conï¬ned to the 100 satellite stations or channel stations one is subscribed to but can rather seamlessly view the universe of “programming content†that also exists in the internet on our “TV,†then we are likely to witness an accelerating shift of ad revenue away from the main TV stations and towards the millions of internet websites. (Of course, this is not just limited to “video†but can encompass any media, including “radio†type audio.)
This promises tremendous opportunities for small businesses and augurs trouble for static “dinosaur†type large businesses that are slow to adapt.
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