Undoubtedly, when it comes to books about the art of marketing, by far, one of the most revered, most impactful, and quite frankly—most revolutionizing works ever written is the best-selling book, Positioning: The Battle For Your Mind, co-authored by the late Al Ries and Jack Trout.
For decades, marketing professionals (including yours truly) have applied lessons learned from Positioning to help launch startups they were either employed by, or the brands of their respective clients into the market.
If you’re unfamiliar with the book, essentially, the premise of Positioning is about positioning brands, products, or services in the minds of consumers in order to ensure success in the market.
In Positioning, Ries and Trout declared, “To be successful today, you must touch base with reality. And the only reality that counts is what’s already in the prospect’s mind. To be creative, to create something that doesn’t already exist in the mind, is becoming more and more difficult. If not impossible.”
True, it has become nearly impossible to create something that doesn’t already exist in the minds of consumers. However, the absolute best way to successfully do so is by creating a niche in the market. Which is always possible—even in a crowded industry.
Combine existing categories
At this point, you’re probably thinking that I am certifiably crazy for saying that a niche could be created in any industry—regardless of how crowded that industry may be with other competitors. Hey, I totally understand. It certainly does sound silly. But it’s absolutely true. And one of the most effective ways to accomplish that task is by combining existing categories.
For example, you don’t have to look any further to find a more crowded industry than the breakfast cereal aisle at your local grocery store. That’s because more so than just about any other product in the store, the breakfast cereal aisle is filled with a tremendous amount of brands for consumers to choose from.
So, if ever there were an industry that was so crowded, you’d have a hard time finding a niche within—it would be the breakfast cereals market, correct? Well, that’s precisely what the startup cereal brand, Eat Your Mouth off, has done.
Launched in 2024 by WK Kellogg Co, Eat Your Mouth Off has found a niche in the breakfast cereals space by combining three categories into their product. The cereal is 100% plant based. Contains 22 grams of protein per serving (which is more grams of protein than the average protein bar). And has 0 grams of added sugar.
And while there are plenty of breakfast cereal brands on the shelves at your local grocery store, Eat Your Mouth Off stands apart from all others because their product combines three particular categories: plant based (vegan), high-protein (health supplement), with 0 grams of sugar (guilt-free).
Not only does this niche separate the brand and its product from all other breakfast cereals on the shelves, more importantly, it separates the product from all others in the minds of consumers.
Think of categories within your brand’s industry that others haven't melded and combine those elements within your products or services.
Create and grow a totally new category
Niching really boils down to two things: positioning a brand or product in the minds of consumers. Which means you must differentiate your brand, products, or services from everything else in the market.
Regardless of how crowded an industry may be, as authors and branding experts Jack Trout (also the co-author of Positioning) and Steve Rivkin stated in their book, Differentiate Or Die: Survival In Our Era Of Killer Competition, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way to differentiate.”
Another proven way to differentiate your brand, products, or services from the competition is by creating an entirely new category within your market. For brevity purposes, these are just a few of the ways you could do that:
Introduce a new type of product or service to the market and categorize it.
Reintroduce a product or service to the market that has been neglected or disregarded in your industry.
Find a market that has yet to be categorized and categorize it—with your brand assuming the leadership position in the new category.
Narrow down by specializing in serving a unique audience as your customer base.
Contrary to popular belief, competition in business is actually a great thing! Especially when it comes to growing a new category. Much like a rising tide lifting all boats, growing a category increases consumer demand for the products or services within that category.
Which is obviously something that all brands belonging to the category could stand to benefit from. With that being said, remember to focus on growing whichever category your brand creates—as that category's leader!
Tell us all about your startup
If you’d like further help creating a niche for your startup, we’d love to help you find one that would help your startup to not just survive, but thrive and surpass all of its industry competitors.
Contact us today and tell us all about your startup as well as your ultimate goals for your brand.
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