The magic of a 'mass-niche' strategic brand positioning

A mass-niche strategic positioning is a powerful way for an elite professional services or B2B brand to stand for something distinctive in a crowded market.

What is a ‘mass-niche’ brand positioning? Why is it such a powerful positioning to adopt? And how do you develop one?

Formula one

What is a mass-niche brand positioning?

Firstly, it must be and appear to be highly focused, with all the accompanying benefits of specialisation: market-leading expertise, cross-fertilisation of knowledge, and deep experience––the niche part.

Secondly, the market niche must offer massive opportunities for innovation, growth, and profitability––the mass part.

Sounds simple. The magic part is that they’re hard to combine, like oil and water.

“Apple focuses only on the very high end of the markets in which it operates.”

Cleaning up

Why is it such a powerful positioning to adopt?

Despite being one of the world’s most valuable companies, Apple positions itself as a niche brand and is the poster child for the benefits of adopting a mass-niche strategy.

Apple focuses only on the very high end of the markets in which it operates––the niche part.

The mass part is that these markets have grown rapidly over the years due to increasing global prosperity and the emergence of millions of new middle-class consumers, enabling Apple to grow without going downmarket to generate more revenues.

Fun fact. Apple has around 25% share of the smartphone market (in phones), 50% of the revenues (in sales) and almost 100% of the profits (in dollars)––well, it was only 85% of the profits in one of the latest reports, but there have been studies that clock Apple at 100%.

That, in a nutshell, is the magic of mass-niche brand positioning. Although aspiring to 100% of your market’s profits might be a stretch, the implications for high-end professional service firms and premium B2B businesses are clear.

“ARM is the market-leading semiconductor company that doesn’t sell a single microprocessor.”

Perceptions count

Identifying a mass-niche brand positioning––as opposed to simply a niche positioning––requires sophisticated market analysis and genuine determination on the part of the firm’s leadership team to set and maintain a tight strategic focus.

A mass-niche doesn’t have to be a sector or a discipline––sometimes it can––but it does have to exist in the ‘mind of the market’; you can’t simply will it into existence.

For example, the market has preconceived ideas about the benefits of ‘German engineering’ that don’t apply to other nationalities.

‘Italian engineering’ doesn’t have the same resonance, but ‘German fashion’ doesn’t take you very far either.

It’s never as straightforward in real life, but the principle is vital when assessing the pros and cons of various mass-niche positionings.

“BMW knows drivers will happily pay for massively and unnecessarily overpowered and over-equipped cars.”

Here’s one we made earlier

A quick look at some highly successful mass-niche strategic brand positionings illustrates the model and how it can be applied to premium professional services and B2B, enabling firms to stand out in extremely crowded fields.

Tesla’s mission is to ‘accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy’ – mainly via electric cars. Electric is still a niche, albeit fast-growing, segment of the global car market.

However, with only around 2% of total car sales, Tesla has achieved a market capitalisation greater than the combined value of the next sixteen biggest car manufacturers, who make up 50% of the global market in sales.

BMW positions itself as ‘the ultimate driving machine’. Not many of us need an ‘ultimate driving machine’ to take the kids to school or commute to work in traffic. But BMW knows drivers will happily pay for massively and unnecessarily overpowered and over-equipped cars.

McKinsey positions itself as being for ‘our clients’ most important challenges’. Their success comes from the insight that C-Suite executives tend to see all their challenges as ‘important’ and have always been willing to pay a significant premium for what is––and is perceived to be––the best strategic advice.

Cooley, a West Coast law firm, is overtly positioned as a specialist technology firm ‘where innovation meets the law’. Technology is only one sector––the niche part. But it’s growing exponentially and influencing many other sectors––the mass part.

Quinn Emanuel, a litigation-only law firm, positions itself exclusively as ‘trial lawyers’. This may not seem particularly niche to the casual observer, but the reality of litigation is that very few significant disputes end up in court; they are settled beforehand. However, Quinn Emanuel taps into the idea of ‘trial threat’ being a significant benefit in the minds of clients facing potentially expensive or damaging litigation, which expands the size of its market beyond the courtroom battles seen in movies.

PA Consulting’s positioning is ‘bringing ingenuity to life’. This mass-niche positioning firmly embraces innovation’s high-ground capability. Innovation is perceived as the ‘pointy end’ of many strategic challenges clients face and look to external consultants for advice and expertise.

ARM, the market-leading semiconductor company that doesn’t sell a single microprocessor, has managed to carve out a mass-niche positioning in the insanely capital-intensive semiconductor market by focusing exclusively on designing chip technology and outsourcing its manufacturing.

ARM describes itself as ‘the R&D department of the entire semiconductor market’. Its technology is used in over 95% of smartphones and much of the burgeoning ‘Internet of Things’ market.

“A mass-niche doesn’t have to be a sector or a discipline, but it does have to exist in the ‘mind of the market.’”

Pulling it off

Many professional service firms and knowledge-intensive B2B businesses could benefit from developing a mass-niche strategic brand positioning.

It starts with a sophisticated analysis of your current positioning, the market opportunity today and its growth potential.

If you discover that you’re already close, your strategy could involve stopping doing things that dilute your focus––either entirely or agreeing to de-emphasise them in your brand positioning.

Or, you may discover that your current positioning has run out of road and that a more fundamental repositioning is necessary (Jaguar anyone?). This is harder and requires commitment and discipline, but the reward will be worth it if you can pull it off.

Less is more seems to be the formula.