Where Niches Fear To Tread

I recently spoke at the Nicholas Hall OTC conference in Venice on the importance of knowing your customer.

At the conference, I cited three successful innovations where marketers took the brands into even more focused niches:

· Listerine mouthwash launched Listerine Pocketpaks for on-the-go oral care,
· Tylenol Extended Relief was renamed Tylenol Arthritis Pain,
· K-Y Jelly launched K-Y Massage Oil.

In all three cases, the key success factors were

· Identifying an unmet consumer need related to the main brand,
· Capitalizing on that specific and focused need,
· Leveraging the emotional connection associated with the parent brand,
· Utilizing a clear product name that identified the line extension’s usage,
· Supporting the launches with strong advertising and promotional support.

The main virtue here was sterling consumer research work that uncovered these insights and translating them into focused executions.

Now just imagine how they all combine into the same usage occasion. Hmmmnn.