It's niche marketing, stupid

Great post by Paul Chaney in response to THE BusinessWeek blog article (as it's being referred to). Mass marketing is out; niche marketing (or one-to-one) is in. As BW puts it: ""Blogs could end up providing the perfect response to mass media's core concern: the splintering of its audience." Chaney also refers to online marketing pioneer Ralph Wilson's emphasis on "defining and thriving in a tiny niche." From Chapter 4 of Wilson's Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy (written in 2001.)

Comments

[Jonathan Kranz]

I hope all this talk about niches doesn't paint us into corners. Remember the early days of the Web? Lots of excitement similar to that surrounding blogs. The sages told us the Web was going to be the great equalizer.

But as it turns out, some sites are much more equal than others. In retail, there's Amazon -- and there's everyone else. In auctions, there's eBay -- and there's everyone else. In search, there's Google . . . and so on.

We're in the heady, "Wild West" days of blogging. But pretty soon, consolidation will come. When the dust settles, a handful of blogs will emerge as very important within their respective categories. And the rest will simply be . . . the rest.