PRODUCT / SERVICE MARKETING STRATEGIES: To remain competitive firms need to establish niche market through product differentiation Presentation

Establishing niche market through product differentiation is one of the ways of business strategic strategy in doing marketing. Dealt with how and what is the best possible strategy to tackle the needs of the market. Basically, establish niche market through differentiation of product requires the firm to identify and offers target market with the unique product, compelling and new to them which are not being addressed yet by the competitors. A niche market is about groups of consumers (market segments) within the larger marketplace who have similar demographic, buying behavior, and/or lifestyle characteristics. These groups of consumers even with same buying behavior may have differing motivation. Product differentiation enables the special and unique features of products and services delivered effectively. The presenter has highlighted on Porters Five Force of Competition which product differentiation is the determinant of buyer power prior to the buyer has power to choose and buy based on the value delivered to them compared to competitors. Focusing on the product differentiation strategy, means the firm has put efforts to established niche market. The presenter has brought up Nike Inc as the case study in explaining the relevance of the product differentiation in establishing niche market. Nike has come out with many product differentiations to cater the different needs of their customer. For instance, the sneakers inspired with Back to Future film popular back on 1987, Nike come out with Nike Mag sneaker for Back to Future followers as its target market which is offers special, unique and exclusive. Dissussions Prior to the topic discussed, there was some issue addressed. What is actually the niche market? The presenter has come out with the further example of niche market. They give the example in the tourism industry which is in the tourism industry there are subtourism type such as eco-tourism and health-tourism. The target market share the same needs but different motivation arouse. The presenter and audience agreed to example of automotive industry i.e. Toyota, Jaguar and Rolls Royce as the examples to further explains the niche market concept. There are several segment of car introduced to cater the needs of the sub-needs of consumer e.g. hybrid car. Mass marketing & niche

marketing.Lotus goes for the sub benefit. Seeking the opinion of presenter about the latest product introduced by Dyson with the bladeless fan.

Point of view Basically the presentation is about the niche market. From my point of view, to enhance the understanding of niche market, we must refer to the definition of niche market itself and the direction of segmentation. From an overall strategy perspective, a niche market strategy is defined as an emphasis on a particular need, or geographic, demographic or product segment (Teplensky et al.1993; Parrish et al). Similarly, Kotler (2003) ,defines a niche market as a more narrowly defined group seeking a distinctive mix of benefits. He states that niche markets are usually constructed by dividing a segment into subsegments and that the key issue in niche marketing is specialization. Same goes with the definition by Michaelson (1988) which defines niche marketing as finding small groups of customers that can be served within a segment. Then, noting the different between the market segmentation and niche market so that the confusion between these concepts can be settled down. Scholars, Shani and Chalasani (1992, pp. 44-5) characterize market segmentation as a top-down approach, stating that it is the process of breaking a large market into smaller and more manageable submarkets. By contrast, niche marketing is a bottom-up approach, meaning that the marketer starts from the needs of a few customers and gradually builds up a larger customer base. Niche market is the contras of the mass market. To success in niche market, the business need to be able differentiate its product. Besides relationships and reputation, Michaelson (1988) believes that the first rule of a niche market strategy is to offer the customer a clearly differentiated product that fills (or creates) a need.