Niche
The original, literal sense of niche refers to recess in a wall, especially one for the display of decorative objects, such as statues. Much less commonly, niche can be used as a verb meaning to place something in this kind of niche.
niche
A niche market[note 1] is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focused. The market niche defines the product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that it is intended to target. It is also a small market segment. Sometimes, a product or service can be entirely designed to satisfy a niche market.[2]
Not every product can be defined by its market niche. The niche market is highly specialized, and aiming to survive among the competition from numerous super companies. Even established companies create products for different niches; Hewlett-Packard has all-in-one machines for printing, scanning and faxing targeted for the home office niche, while at the same time having separate machines with one of these functions for big businesses.[3]
In practice, product vendors and trade businesses are commonly referred to as mainstream providers or narrow demographics niche market providers (colloquially shortened to just niche market providers). Small capital providers usually opt for a niche market[4] with narrow demographics as a measure of increasing their financial gain margins.
The final product quality (low or high) is not dependent on the price elasticity of demand, but the specific needs that the product is aimed to satisfy and, in some cases, aspects of brand recognition (e.g. prestige, practicability, money saving, expensiveness, environmental conscience, or social status). When there are needs or desires with specific and even complex characteristics, the market niche requires specialized suppliers which are capable of meeting such expectations.
Unlike mass audiences, which represent a large number of people, a niche audience is an influential smaller audience.[5] In television, technology and many industrial practices changed with the post-network era, and niche audiences are now in much greater control of what they watch. In this context of greater viewer control, television networks and production companies are trying to discover ways to profit through new scheduling, new shows, and relying on syndication.[citation needed] This practice of "narrowcasting" also allows advertisers to have a more direct audience for their messages.[6]
With few exceptions, such as American Idol, the Super Bowl and the Olympics, it is not common for a substantial audience to watch a program at once. Still, networks do target particular demographics. Lifetime targets women and MTV targets youth. Sports channels, for example, STAR Sports, ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPNU, STAR Cricket, FS1, FS2 and CBS Sports Network, target the niche market of sports enthusiasts.[7][citation needed]
A business niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market that your business serves specifically. According to Charlene Walters, business and branding mentor and author of Own Your Other, finding a niche differentiates your business from the competition and allows you to excel in your sector.
The ever-growing pet market has boundless potential for establishing niche businesses. Niche businesses could revolve around pet products, pet-related apps, training courses, grooming services or pet insurance.
Finding a niche perfectly suited to your business can help differentiate your brand, build a loyal customer base, reduce competition and increase profits. Identifying a perfect niche might not always be obvious, but once you research the market, target audience, and your business strengths and resources, you can narrow down your options and determine the optimal course of action.
This sounds so basic, but it really makes all the difference. Don't just choose a niche because you're "kind of interested" in it; to be sustainable, it should ideally be something you can see yourself being passionate about for at least 5 years*.
At this point, you may want to narrow your niche down even further. For instance, you may have found that "freelance writing" is a popular niche, but want to see if you can find an even narrower focus for your niche.
Delve even deeper by visiting these subreddits, as well as niche groups and forums, to see which topics or questions come up regularly. This could help you further define your niche (e.g., "freelance science fiction writers"), as well as help you come up with additional sub-niches or blog topic ideas for the future.
Next, drive traffic to that landing page using AdWords. This will allow you to see how much interest there actually is in your niche and/or product - both in terms of traffic and downloads. Keep in mind that if you're getting lots of traffic through AdWords but not many conversions, it's more likely an issue with your landing page copy...not the niche!
Another way to validate your niche is to survey your target market. Promote your survey anywhere you have contact with your target market: in your guest posts, in industry-related groups, on social media, via Google surveys (you can pay Google to promote these for you), etc.
While this 5-step process won't guarantee you'll succeed in your niche, it should spark some ideas and give you a great place to start. It will also help minimize the risk inherent in starting a niche site, saving you time, money and frustration.
This is a very important insight! Having a clear niche is key to set up a good marketing and service to potential custmers. I will take into consideration some of the other aspects you mentioned, like the evolving niches.
Instead of your product being a book (broad product), or a cookbook (niche), you could focus specifically on creating a vegan dessert cookbook (sub-niche).
Or, rather than offering a generic service such as coaching (broad service), or leadership coaching (niche), you could focus specifically on leadership coaching for female entrepreneurs (sub-niche).
If you have an idea of what your niche is, this is a great exercise to figure out exactly who your target audience is. Find out what frustrations your prospects have in common and use these pain points to define your niche.
Once you have asked yourself these questions, take your responses and use them to help craft your niche. This will separate you from your competitors and make it easier for your potential customers to decide that you are a better fit for their needs.
The activity begins with students interpreting a graph about dietary niche partitioning by grazers on the African savanna. Students then watch two short videos, one on niche partitioning and the other on DNA metabarcoding, and answer questions to apply what they have learned.
The niche of an organism within an ecosystem depends on how the organism responds and reacts to the distribution and abundance of these factors, and in turn how it alters the factors. For example, when resources are abundant, a population grows, although by growing, the population provides more resources for predators.
It can be advantageous for an organism to occupy a very specific niche: this way they will encounter less interspecific competition. Such organisms are called niche specialists. However, specialist species that occupy a very narrow or highly specialized niche encounter problems when there is a sudden decline or change in biotic or abiotic factors; if the organism is unable to adapt to the change, it becomes highly vulnerable to population decrease or extinction.
For this reason, many species have evolved with the ability to thrive under a range of different environmental conditions, making use of a variety of resources; these are called niche generalists. It should be noted that the distinction between specialists and generalist species occurs on a continuum; some specialists are highly specialized, while others occupy a slightly broader niche. Some generalists are more specialized than others.
The full range of biotic factors and environmental conditions that an organism can utilize and survive in is called its fundamental niche. However, there are restraints on populations, such as competition, predation and resource availability. These restraints are called limiting factors. Limiting factors prevent populations from increasing indefinitely, restricting organisms to occupy their actual or realized niche.
Giant panda bears (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) are niche specialists. They have a very limited diet, 99% of which consists of bamboo. They have evolved specially adapted thumbs, which allow them to grip the bamboo. Bamboo does not provide much nutrition, and so the pandas must spend most of their time eating, consuming around 70lbs of bamboo every day to support their large bodies.
Because the niche of pandas is so specialized, they are exceptionally vulnerable to human impact and their populations have experienced dramatic declines. The biggest threat has been deforestation for farmland, mining and logging, which has destroyed most of their habitat. They are now restricted to the humid bamboo forests of a few mountains in South Western China where they prefer the cool temperatures at high altitudes of around 4,000 to 10,000 ft.
Coyotes (Canis latrans) are successful niche generalists. Originally native to deserts, these omnivorous opportunists are able to adapt to almost all habitats at many different successional stages, and altitudes up to around 9800 ft.
In the absence of mammals, the native animals filled ecological niches of predation, scavenging and grazing, which are filled by mammals in most other ecosystems. This resulted in a diverse set of morphologically distinct birds, insects and reptiles, which are like no others seen on Earth. For example, the South Island takahē (Porphyrio hochstetteri) and the Kakapo Parrot (Strigops habroptilus) evolved to assume the role of grazers such as sheep, feeding on grass, shoots and leaves. The Giant Moa (Dinornis robustus and Dinornis novaezelandiae), although now extinct, were large birds, growing up to around 12ft tall and over 500lb in weight. These birds fed on twigs, leaves and other various plant parts, assuming the niche that in other parts of the world is filled by deer and other ungulate browsing herbivores. The Kiwi, a nocturnal bird of the genus Apteryx, assumes the niche that small mammals such as mice and moles usually fill, feeding on seeds, fruit, invertebrates and grubs. 041b061a72