Niche and mass marketing

20.1 Mass marketing

Mass marketing is the attempt to create products or services that have universal appeal. Rather than targeting a specific type of customer, mass marketing aims the product at the whole market. The intention is that everyone should be a consumer of the product. The company aims its product at young and old alike. Its goal has always been to be the market leader and is still today. The ultimate prize of of mass marketing is the creation of generic brands. These are brands that are so associated with the product that consumers treat the brand name as if it were a product category.

When mass marketing is carried out successfully it can be highly profitable. Mass marketing does not have to go hand-in-hand with low prices. 

20.2 Niche marketing 

A niche market is a very small segment of a much larger market. Niche marketing involves identifying the needs of the consumers that make up the niche. A specialised product or service is then designed to meet the distinctive needs of the consumers. Niche-market products tend to sell in relatively low volume. As a result, the price of a niche-market product is usually higher than the mass-market alternative. Niche market operators often distribute their products through specialist retailors, or directly to the consumer via the internet.

An entrepreneur wanting to set up a niche market business must first identify a group of people who share a taste for a product or service that is currently unsatisfied. A product or a service must then be designed that is capable of meeting this unsatisfied need. To succeed, the new miche product will need to to be superior to the mass-market equivalent that is currently available. Finally, the niche must be large enough to support a profitable business. Many new niche-market businesses fail because the revenue generated from their niche-market business is not high enough to cover the costs of operating…