Otakus and Mavens (Part Three of Three)

We’ve talked about what marketing is: The Art of Conversion. We’ve talked about the critical conversion measuring points:  Advertisement to Magnet, Magnet to Follow up and Follow up to Purchase.  If we don’t know where and what to measure, then we’ll just be spending money on hope.

Now I’d like to talk to you about who you’re marketing to.  Understanding Target Marketing is critical for small business owners with a finite budget.

I’m sure you have heard of Geoffrey Moore’s Model of Diffusion, as diagrammed below.

A quick explanation: when a new idea, product or technology comes along, the vast majority of the people will ignore it, or even go as far as to violently oppose it.  However, there are the few who embrace the idea: the ‘Innovators’.  Consider the internet back in 1995.  It was not easy to create a web page.  The innovators were the ones who spent high prices to have a site and did the hard work to create them.  Today, you can make and host a website for free without doing a single line of code with companies like Weebly.

After the Innovators come the ‘Early Adopters’. These are people who keep their ear to the ground and know what is new in their industry.  They aren’t the first to try things out, but, once they see proof of the innovators using it successfully, they join in as well.  By this point, the prices are usually a little lower and the product or service is usually a little easier to use.

Finally, for this discussion anyway, the ‘Early Majority’ show up when the product is so easy to use that there is very little learning required to use the product successfully.  By this point, the price is set for mass consumption as well.  Chances are, you run a small business that sells a product or service that has already reached the early majority.   Which means that there is an industry leader who is dominating the market and you’re just hoping to get a small percentage of the market share.

If you were to hit the market with the same mass-marketing techniques of the industry leader, a few things are likely to happen.
1. You’ll probably gain far less than 1% of the market share.
2. You’ll probably spend far more than 50% of the industry leader’s marketing budget.
3. You’ll probably make your product and service pretty boring.

Instead, you need to find a Target Market, a ‘niche’. If your product isn’t new, you must find a new way to view, use or sell your product and do something that no one else is doing. Yes, this requires risk, creativity and care.

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you can select a Target Market and grow to become the market leader. If you ask me, shoes, books and coffee are some of the most boring products on the planet.  If I were going to create a break-through business, I surely wouldn’t pick any of those mature industries.   However, if you look at Zapos, Amazon and Starbucks, they have revolutionized those industries entirely. Here is how I think they did it, and how you can do it too.

First, care about what you do! Care about your business, the industry you’re in and your customers.

Second, you need to find the Innovators in your market. As tempting as it is, FORBID yourself from marketing to the masses that live in the early and late majority.  It took innovators and early adopters years to convert them to do what they are doing now.  Those people don’t like to change.  Innovators are people who have an infatuation of sorts for your industry.  The Japanese call this ‘Otaku’. Go to a comic book convention, you’ll see first-hand what means to have an otaku.   These are the innovators.  When a new insurance product comes out, there are some investors and business owners who are so driven to be on the edge, that they purchase them instantly.  What’s your otaku?  Mine is Buffalo-Style Chicken Wings!  (You can read more about Otakus in Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.)

Next, you need to find the Early Adopters. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Tipping Point describes a type of person he called a “Maven.”  A maven is an expert or connoisseur.  Someone whom you might turn to when you’re getting ready to make a major purchase of some sort.  They are the people who just want to know things. They may not be the first to buy things, but they always want to know what’s new, what’s better and why.  These are the people whom companies like Zapos, Amazon and Starbucks catered to in the beginning.

What are the people who have an otaku for your industry looking for?

What are the Mavens saying about you?

Do they even know you exist?

The success coaches and non-script-reading customer support team are a huge part of Infusionsoft’s success.  This is also as big a part of the company as the software itself.

What can you do that would get mavens and people with otakus talking?

Start with people who want to change!