subject: Positioning Your Information Products For Success by:Neil Asher [print this page] Those of us involved in information marketing often like to think we are different from traditional marketers. But we can still learn a lot from the experiences of retail advertisers, especially the giants who paved the way in the last century.
One of the basic tenets of mass marketing is something known as "positioning." In Internet marketing terminology, it's what we like to call "establishing your niche."
There's a classic example of positioning that I'd like to share with you. It involved the company Johnson & Johnson, years ago. I learned about this from Al Reis and Jack Trout, the "positioning guys" who created Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo.
Anyone who knows this product will agree that Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo is a great shampoo. They could've taken their shampoo and said, "You know what? This is so good. Why don't we call it "Human Shampoo?" There's a lot bigger market for human than for babies, right?
Or they could've even zoomed out and said, "This is Animal Shampoo." Humans are animals, too, so why not market it as "critter shampoo." It's shampoo for all of lifea huge market including all living things. That would have been fine, because it works for critters, humans, kids, and whatever else.
But Reis and Trout were very savvy. Instead of "thinking big," they narrowed their niche. They positioned the shampoo as just for babies. Their reasoning was that it is so gentle that it won't make your baby cry if it gets in her eyes.
Now that's a powerful and very emotional driver. It was the perfect positioning. Johnson & Johnson's became the #1 baby shampoo worldwide.
Then what happened was something that no one would have guessed. But this is what happens when you become a great marketer. Johnson & Johnson's Baby Shampoo became the #1 selling adult shampoo, too!
People reasoned, "If it's good enough for babies, and it doesn't make them cry, it's good enough for me, because I don't like shampoo in my eyes either."
So what can we learn from this and apply to information marketing? In three simple words: Know your niche.
The mistake most people make when they start an online business is to try and expand their niche or widen it. As an example, let's say that you've lost 30 pounds and kept it off. You want to create an information product to help others lose weight. Then you start thinking, "All the things that I do to lose weight are actually the same things you do to get really healthy. Why don't I just make a book about health? I'll expand my market. Then it'll be interesting to everyone." Your information morphs into "How To Be Really Healthy."
Well that's good logic, but it's horrible marketing. It's DOAdead on arrival.
Instead, you should stick to your knitting and be narrowing your niche. Your customer doesn't want something that's good for everyone; they want something that was created just for them. They want to feel like you made it just for them. Ask yourself, "Who could I help lose weight? Men or women? How old are they? Are they married or single? What do they want?"
Answer these questions. Narrow it down to where you've identified the core market: "Well, it's mostly women, and they're mostly middle aged. They're overweight and getting insecure. They don't want their husbands to leave them."
Now you've got a market. You've got an information product that focuses in on how to lose weight for middle-aged women so that they'll become more attractive to their husbands who will in turn never leave them. That's going to be so much more compelling to potential customersa hundred or a thousand times as compelling as the generic book about health.
So, there you go. Know your niche. Narrow it down. Base your niche on an emotional driver like Johnson & Johnson did. That's how you position your information products for success.
About the author
Neil Asher (http://www.neilasher.com/freestuff.htm) has built five multi-million dollar companies from zero, including one he took to $8 million in sales in under two years. He has created and sold successful franchises in England, Italy, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Visit his web site for access to 17 FREE videos, 6 FREE books and two hours of audio training, revealing "How To Make BIG Money Selling Information Products On The InternetEven If You Don't Have A Website And You've Never Sold Anything On The Internet Before."
