‘Don’t worry about offending people who aren’t even your customers.’ Those words I heard at a marketing seminar almost two years ago have stuck with me constantly.

Last week I worked with a client who has developed a really neat product with a spiritual twist. As a very devout Christian, she wanted to introduce her faith into her work but was concerned that she may offend people by using the words ‘faith’ or ‘God’. After our session together, she made the very important and exciting decision to market her product to a Christian market and use their vocabulary – a vocabulary she is very familiar with.

I was able to help her find quotes and principles in the Bible, (her target market’s handbook), that would validate her product and service, help them see the need for her product in view of their faith and appreciate clearly why she was the ideal person to sell them this product.

Why is what happened with my client so critical in business today?

The Long Tail by Chris Anderson talks about this very clearly in his highly informative book. It’s a book that I highly recommend for serious entrepreneurs. Here’s a quiz for you: In a jukebox carrying 10,000 albums, how many of those 10,000 albums sold at least one track every 3 months? If you know anything about the 80/20 rule, your answer would be 20% as that is the rule and has been for centuries. Twenty percent of products account for 80 percent of sales and usually close to 100 percent of the profits. What is your answer?

Very interestingly, the answer was not 20 percent nor 50 percent but was a
whopping 98 percent. Now before you ask why you need to know this, do you remember the TV show I Love Lucy? Most people remember Lucy and Ethel stuffing their faces with chocolates at the chocolate factory when they couldn’t keep up with the production line or Lucy stomping grapes in a wine press. Why do most people I talk to remember those episodes? Because we were all watching the same shows!

I Love Lucy, Gilligans Island, the Brady Bunch and the Partridge Family were standard fare for most kids growing up in the 60’s and 70’s. Everybody watched the same shows because there were very few choices. Today, you can watch hundreds of different channels and target in on exactly the type of information you want from Food to History to Science. What does this have to do with my client marketing to a Christian market, a jukebox and television programs?

Unlike ever before, we now have access to all the ‘non-hits’ which are still really, really good but just don’t make the top 10 or top 100! There’s a very strong and HUGE market for products outside the so-called ‘blockbuster’ hits. Your product is probably one of those products or services ‘outside’ the top 10! You really need to appreciate the fact that the ‘non-hit’ market accounts for more sales than the ‘celebrated’ hits!

The market has become extremely niched and if you think I am joking about the impact of this on your business, you’ll like this story.

On March 21, 2000 NSYNC released their album No Strings Attached. The album sold 2.4 million copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling album ever. It sold 11 million copies by the end of the year. In 2000, the top five albums sold a combined 38 million copies. However, in 2005, the top five sold just half that; only 19.7 million copies.

All entrepreneuers should be asking the question: Why? Ipods and Itunes are largely responsible for this phenomenon. Why would anyone listen to a song on an album that they don’t like when they can just download what they like to their Ipod and listen to it anytime, anywhere?

Today people want exactly what they want, how they want it and when they want it. Now downloading music may not be your particular thing but I bet you have become very niched in some area of your life! Just think about it! Block-buster hits are fast disappearing as the primary source of revenue in the world and ‘nichebusters’ are taking their place.

Many of my clients have thought that the entire world was their oyster and their product needed to be available and desirable for the greatest number of people. Wrong! You are only going to see more and more niching in the marketplace. In studying the trend for the last 18 months I am convinced that we will never see another Oprah. She hit the marketplace before niching was the standard in people’s lives. So stop thinking about how to hit the whole world with your message. Start thinking about your particular niche.

My client is passionate about her product’s topic and she is passionate about her Christian faith. She has married the two in a product that will appeal to a tremendous niche market. She’s excited about it, she feels like she is in integrity, she’s not worried about offending people who aren’t her market AND it will be much easier to market to her niche. Much easier and much less expensive.

Look at your product or service. Who is your niche? Become a Big Fish in a Little Pond. We’ll discuss that further in next month’s newsletter as I introduce you to a mentor of mine that does about a $100,000,000 business annually in a very niched market. In the meantime, stop worrying about offending people who aren’t your clients. Get clear on your market, your message, your passion for your business and then go do it with love, ethics, purpose and profit!

Have an amazing month,

P.S. If you haven’t check out the updated Resource Page at
www.spiritualentrepreneurinfo.com you may want to and if you wish to be included in a Business Opportunity or a Resource for the website, please email me a jan@janjanzen.com and let’s discuss what you have to offer. I would love to hear from you!

P.P.S. I am very involved in an organization called the Joint Venture Forum. For me to go to any networking meeting or spend my time with any particular organization is very, very, very rare. However, I do spend my time with this one for very good reason. I encourage you to check it out at www.letsjointventure.com

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