Amy Will - Launching & Building a Brand For Dummies

To find a niche, start by answering the following questions:

Does your brand offer a unique solution to a problem, and if so, how is it unique?

What does your brand offer that competing brands don’t?

What are your brand’s use cases (different ways that my products/services can be used)? List your products/services, and identify all possible use cases for each.

How is your brand different from and better than the competition?

Does your brand fill an unmet need in the marketplace or serve an underserved group of consumers? If so, how?

(For a personal brand) What makes you so special? Think in terms of appearance, personality, knowledge, expertise, and skill set — every ingredient that goes into making you you .

Who’s going to buy what you’re selling?

Why do people need or value what your brand offers?

Examine your answers to these questions, and look for patterns or areas of overlap, which is usually where you’ll discover your niche. For my Girl Gang brand, I knew that women empowerment was a big and growing movement and that women like to make fashion statements. In those two areas of overlap, I recognized an unmet need: Women needed a way to express and demonstrate their support for female empowerment, and they could do that through a fashion statement and by supporting women-owned businesses. I had discovered my niche.

In the following sections, I cover specific approaches to identifying or creating a niche.

People often ask sarcastically, “Are you looking for trouble?” as if that’s a bad thing. People who look for trouble are the visionaries and inventors of the world, and they’re often the richest and most successful as well. They spotted a problem, devised a solution for it, and created a lucrative niche.

Just think how many books, courses, and seminars have been sold to help couples solve their relationship issues. Consider all the commercial technologies that have been developed to solve problems in just one small area: data security. Entire industries have been created to solve problems ranging from not having enough time to shop for groceries or being unable to flag down a taxi to dealing with energy shortages and climate change.

In every problem is an opportunity.

People often need stuff they can’t get or can’t get affordably or conveniently. Sometimes, they don’t even know they need it or want it until you show them how much better their lives could be if they had it. Nobody really needed a camera built into a mobile phone, for example, but as soon as a mobile phone with a camera became available, everyone had to have one.

When you discover an unmet need or create one, you create a niche market that can be very lucrative. I once worked at Tower Paddle Boards, a direct-to-consumer paddleboard company. All the paddleboard brands in our industry sold to surf shops and outdoor retailers, so their products were pricey. But company founder Stephan Aarstol spotted an unmet need: affordable high-quality paddleboards. By selling direct to consumers, Tower Paddle Boards eliminated the retail markup and slashed prices without sacrificing quality. That’s how you create a niche.

You’ve probably heard the expression “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” You don’t see a lot of demand for a jack (or a Jill) of all trades or even a business that offers everything to everyone. Some of the big players offer all things, however, and are successful. At Walmart, for example, you can find a broad selection of products, have your vision tested, get your car repaired and your hair cut, and even have your taxes done. But even many of the big players have a niche; Walmart competes on convenience and price.

When you’re building and launching a new brand, you’re not a big player, so don’t try to be or offer everything to everyone. Eventually, you may want to reach a broader market, but start small by focusing on the needs and desires of a small segment of your market. This advice applies whether you’re creating a business, product, service, or personal brand.

To create a market niche, collaborate with people who are passionate about your industry. Most great ideas are born from creative thought and discussion among people with shared interests.

Niche markets are often the products of inspiration. An idea pops into your head about something unique or a twist on something that’s been around for years. A case in point is the skin-care industry. Recently, this well-entrenched industry has been rocked by products with natural ingredients. Phthalates and parabens are out; fruits, veggies, and botanicals are in. The shift in demand for natural skin-care products created an opening in a very crowded market, allowing small business to make a big mark.

You can’t force an idea to pop into your head, but you can create fertile ground from which unique ideas are more likely to sprout. Here are a couple methods to try:

Immerse yourself in the industry or the market you’re passionate about. The more information and insight you have, the more material your subconscious mind has to work with to generate ideas.

Tune in to the news, and be sensitive to growing trends. Ideas for natural skin-care products, for example, came from concerns about potentially harmful chemicals in foods and other products.

Broaden your interests; expand your mind. Ideas for unique businesses, products, and services are often the product of diversity or convergence — viewing something from a different perspective or looking at two distinct industries or markets side by side.

When you’re building and launching a brand, you’re typically building and launching a business — a complex topic that I don’t want to subject you to. But you do need to know the basics so that you start your brand/business on the right foot, avoid legal and tax issues, and ensure that your brand and other intellectual property is protected.

In this section, I explain the basics of incorporating and registering your business, and I touch on the topic of protecting your brand and other intellectual property (a topic you can find more about in Chapter 19).

Incorporating your business is the process of establishing it as an entity separate from you as a person. As a corporation, your business gains certain benefits, including legal protections and potential tax benefits. From a branding perspective, incorporating your business may help build trust and credibility among prospective customers and clients.

When incorporating a business, you decide how to structure it — as a partnership, limited liability company (LLC), C corporation, or S corporation. If you are your business (you’re self-employed), your business is considered to be a sole proprietorship, and you stand to miss out on the benefits provided to corporations.

Choosing the right corporation type now can prevent headaches and hassles later, but you can change your business structure at any time. For my first business, a wholesale hair-tie company, I started as a sole proprietor. But when I started working with larger retailers such as Zazzle and Sephora, I decided to switch to an LLC to reduce my exposure to financial risk in case someone decided to take legal action against me for some reason.