The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn

Ideal customers are persons for whom your product is an exact match. They will compose a larger group of your target market comprised of individuals who will likely purchase the product. You may be creating a new market, accessing a previously untapped market, or entering a mature market with plenty of competition. If doing the latter, be aware that you have your work cut out for you. You can be successful, but the odds are against you unless you position yourself properly. Use your competitive advantage to show your product as an alternative to the mainstream brand. If you are more focused on a particular segment of the market, you can steal market share from the big guys.

For example, if I were to start my own shoe company, I would be facing plenty of competition since the shoe market is already saturated by big companies with big marketing dollars to spend. My only hope would be to focus on one piece of the market. If I designed a shoe for tennis only and called it the Racquet, I could go after the tennis portion of the market. The big-name companies make all kinds of shoes, as well as clothing and other sporting goods. By focusing specifically on the needs of tennis players, I could attract the attention of that segment of the market. The big guys can’t compete because they have already marketed themselves as making shoes for all sorts of athletes. Use their line extension against them. The best they can do is co-brand and come into the tennis market segment under a new name, but you have the powerful advantage of being there first.

I play hockey, so I will use an example of what I have seen happening in the hockey equipment market. The majority of the hockey market is comprised of conservative players with a love for tradition. The big names in hockey equipment have been around for generations. In the 1980s a new company called Itech designed a plastic face shield for helmets. This is a great name since their product was a new technology that protects the eyes. Hockey players accepted Itech because it was a new product focused on an area that had little if any, special attention paid to it previously. Itech was the first face shield on the market and gained a positive reputation. Years later Itech started making sticks, gloves and helmets. They lost their identity as a face shield. What does a pair of gloves have to do with eye technology? The name no longer matches the product and becomes a hindrance instead of an enhancement. Itech should have stuck with making face shields. Now they look like all the other hockey equipment companies minus the history and prestige. Today there is another face shield on the market, Excel 1, which is known only for making face shields. Players think of face shields when they hear the name Excel 1. Mention Itech and no one is sure what product is meant. The question is whether Excel 1 will learn from Itech’s mistake or will they start making gloves also? More importantly, will you learn from their mistakes?

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