• Ad Age, Tuesday, June 5, 2007 11:30 AM

Citing research from Booz Allen Hamilton, Lindsay, Stone & Briggs CEO Marcia Lindsey says that the brands that will survive and thrive in the new economy will be those that give up illusions of massiveness. They will figure out how to excel at attracting and keeping as narrowly focused a niche as is economically feasible.

As every market matures, choice increases. Then competition drives up quality and convenience to the point at which offerings become commoditized. The businesses that thrive are those that move beyond "me-too" or incremental offerings to marketing more-relevant and more-differentiated products and services. The only way to accomplish this is to focus on a narrower target--an evolution of niche marketing that might be referred to as optimized segmentation.

Among the principles for harnessing the power of niche marketing are becoming the specialist that anticipates the needs of your target; re-imagining your role as an entrepreneurial founder of an interest group; and realizing your brand is now "media" competing against all other media.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »