First of all – there are several different definitions of the word niche. Most commonly, marketers use one that goes something like this:

A niche is nothing more than a small specialized segment of a larger market
-conventional wisdom

If you use that definition, you may well become successful, but I think you may be missing some opportunities. In the conventional sense a niche is a subset of a larger market – a smaller, more narrowly-focused group of potential customers for your product. In this sense, what’s important about the “nicheyness” of your niche is its relationship within the larger market – not the people who occupy the niche (the ones you want to sell to) – and certainly not why they occupy this particular segment. Maybe it’s the psychologist in me, but I like to focus on people.

For this reason, I tend to think about niches using something more along the lines of a biological definition:

A biological niche is a habitat in which an organism finds its necessary conditions for living, including food, air, thermal control, and breeding.

There’s some meat in that definition. First and foremost – we’re talking about “necessary conditions for living.” In the true biological sense, yes this is about survival. All species require physical safety, a non-lethal environment, access to a food/nutrient supply, etc.

But what about when you apply this to people; what happens when you’re a consumer that has already met these basic survival needs? Guess what, you still have necessary conditions for living – but they’re aligned with your hopes, your esteem, your goals, your plans for your future, your plans to provide for yourself, or your family. According to the psychologist Abraham Maslow, there is a hierarchy of needs from the very basic to the most enlightened. In a practical sense – almost all of us live our lives somewhere in the middle levels of this hierarchy – in relative safety and comfort, with many of our concerns revolving around maintaining our esteem among fiends and families.

In these levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of need, each of us still has “necessary conditions” – if not for survival, then at least for comfort, or satisfaction. Many of us find various hobbies and activities provide this sort of comfort. Depending on our tastes, we gravitate toward activities that make us feel good – and as we do this, we tend to find others with similar interests. People start clustering together in groups, and clubs, online and off – discussing and sharing their interests. In western societies, a large fraction of these people buy goods and services that allow them to continue seeking their best, or most satisfying interests. Because golf and skiing, and fly fishing can be so much fun, there are golf nuts, snow bunnies, and fly fishing bums born every day.

If you can connect with why people are motivated to choose to be in the niche you’re market to, you’ll probably find that actually selling to them won’t be that hard. The trick to finding your marketing niche – if it is a trick – is to consider what you like. What are you passionate about? Once you know that – explore where that interest comes from. Find out what is it about the things that you’re passionate about that make you passionate about them. If you do that, you’ll have a good idea about why others would be passionate about the same thing.

And THAT will make you a better marketer.

p.s. If you’re wondering, yes, the iDuck wireless speaker is a real product for people who like to play their iPods in the bath or shower.