Welcome to our glorious capitalist society, where every entrepreneur can stay busy in whatever industry he likes for as long as he wants to be industrious. Just watch those busy wheels of the market spin please! It’s beautiful to watch it all spin, but when you dive in, you’ll notice that you have this little factor that you have to fight against in order for your business to succeed: competition.
Yeah, it’s kind of a spoiler that so many of your customers have the option to take their business elsewhere. Particularly in the field of hospitality, where restaurants, bars, hotels and casinos are commonly found everywhere. You can compete directly, trying to beat your competitors on price or quality. But when that fails, one possible strategy to consider is to look for a niche market.
Here, you specialize in a particular category and profess to do that one thing well and do it exclusively. The Starbucks coffee franchise is a prime example – they started out as a small chain of espresso shops in Seattle, Washington. That’s it, that’s all they’re known for: coffee. Although their success has helped them venture into tea and other beverages, as well as snacks and pastries. So now they are more of a chain of coffee shops known primarily for their coffee.
It’s arguable that Starbucks wouldn’t have existed without the college/tech crowd. The chain became the “happening” spot for college students and especially tech entrepreneurs, two groups who are known for their enthusiasm for coffee drinks. The décor and ambience of the early Starbucks stores reflect this very well: a hip, urban, sophisticated environment, where you wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a poet doodling on a notepad, a programmer or blogger speaking on a laptop. , an artist quietly drawing the crowd, and a couple of old intellectuals playing chess at a corner table, all while alternative music on the speakers provides the subtext.
Bars are a prime candidate for niche specialization. We’ve all discovered the country/western themed bar, the disco club, the blue-collar fern bar, the biker bar, the sailor bar, and the popular sports bar. Bars cater to a wide range of specialties, and there are establishments dedicated to singles, exclusive bars for members of an alternative lifestyle to meet and mingle, or themed bars for fans of a particular music genre. Bars, being for recreational purposes anyway, lend themselves easily to having a theme. You also see bars that are marketed into a niche based on age, such as themed establishments like “speakeasy” or that cater to a jazz-loving crowd. Anything from a ’50s “sock hop” to a ’90s “yuppie safari” can be paired with a bar.
Restaurants are another frequent candidate for niche specialties. Virtually any ethnic variety of food is represented in a restaurant somewhere. But restaurants have many more options to find their niche than just their national identity on the menu; And so we have truck stop diners, wine country bed-and-breakfast inns, upper-class glitz establishments, outdoor cafes, family-oriented pizzerias, and specialty bakeries and ice cream parlors.
It could be argued that pizza, by itself, is no longer identified with Italian food. The national chain “Chuck E. Cheese” demonstrates this very well. Founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell in San Jose, California, they knew their target market was suburban families, so they established a restaurant that not only sold pizza, but also arcades, shows, and a wide variety of entertainment aimed mainly at young children. The chain remains today one of the few reliable family-friendly establishments that offer a viable option for a night out for the whole family. The restaurant is suburban and Americanized; You’ll find very few references to Italy other than the menu.
Even hotels and casinos are involved in niche marketing action. Here, niche marketing is less important, as these establishments are too big not to be meant to be for everyone. Casinos especially target a specific theme to design everything afterwards. A cruise along the Las Vegas Strip will reveal casinos inspired by an ancient Roman emperor, a western saloon, an Egyptian pyramid, the city of Paris, the city of Venice, etc. Many casinos now also aim for fun for the whole family and include everything from movie theaters to full-scale amusement parks with rides, live shows and rides.
Whatever niche you choose for your own business, you need to be able to understand your target audience. Think of it as a point system. You get a point for your Asian restaurant if your menu is authentic enough that a member from that country could eat there and not know the difference. You get more points if the business is decorated with a country theme; For an Asian restaurant, foo dogs, Buddhas, and bamboo and water fountains are popular touches. You get another point for your Asian theme if you offer chopsticks as an alternative utensil. And so. Every point you can add to the scorecard represents one more way to provide your niche customer base with an authentic experience.
