Vertical Marketing.
Positioning yourself right in the sweet spot of your market or niche.
Positioning Yourself In The Vertical Market
Vertical marketing is a process of zooming in and out of an industry or market to locate a specific 'Niche Market" or area to focus on.Every business should know what is above and below it.
Imagine if you where dropped in to the biggest outdoor festival in the world and your job is find parents with small children because your a magic clown and you have 50 giant helium balloons to sell. Ideally you would want to float upwards and get a look at the layout of the festival, hoping to spot key landmarks that are successfully attracting children.
The problem is you spot, carnival rides, a petting zoo and a show bag arcade all in different areas of the festival. You need to float down to the carnival rides to investigate, float back up so you can then zoom into the petting zoo and start making some comparisons about the best place to set up your enterprise. As you do this you are traveling up an down the vertical markets.
What if the festival organizers did a really great job of organizing everything and all the cool, kids stuff was all west of the river? That makes the job a lot easier but I still need to float down to all the sections amongst the children's area to pick the best spot to sell my balloons.
Should I set up next to the petting zoo? ...the show bags? ...the performance stage?
When I zoom down to these areas I see plenty of kids all holding fairy floss, crazy hats and water pistols so I could probably set up anywhere in these high traffic areas and sell my balloons for around the same COMPETITIVE price ...say $2 - I will make $100 for my effort.
I would be standing in a high traffic area trying to interrupt people as they walk by, focussed on another destination. This would be great if had 1000 balloons and plenty of help interupting everyone but I only have myself, 50 balloons and they are really special. People in the high traffic areas are too busy to here my message, justifying a higher price.
Lets zoom upwards again!
I spot a small group of parents and children sitting around a giant statue of a giraffe, right at the outskirts, south of the festival. The parents are resting and the children seem bored. If I truly have some remarkable balloons, if I believe in my product and I have a really interesting story to tell then this could well be the perfect niche for me. They are not the main stream, they are just a tiny creek off to the side, but they are neglected and ready to listen to my story.
All I need to do now is set my stand up to tell a story (not sell balloons). Lets set up in front of 5 people, two kids, two adults and grandma. Now take out one balloon and begin to show them just how remarkable this balloon is:
- Its bigger than normal balloons
- It changes color
- and it has Magic SECRET powers
As the crowd builds I finally reveal the magic everyone has been waiting for. I ask a small boy to be my volunteer. I get the boy to climb up onto a small wooden box and hold the balloon (at this point the crowd begins to swell because they are all blocking the view of each other and the curiosity level is growing exponentially. Finally I announce that the balloons are so rare and limited that they are worth $100 each and only available right here at the giant giraffe statue. I ask the boy to jump off the wooden box and he floats just 30 centimeters above the ground. The crowd is enthralled and amused, I publicly thank the boy by giving him a free balloon.
At first no-one buys a balloon at the expensive price but I have created a new niche and positioned it in the vertical marketplace, not where the main stream traffic is, not where the animals lovers are, and not where the thrill seekers are, but I have a position next to a landmark thats easy to find.
The boy spends the rest of the day hovering around the festival and everybody asks his mum and dad ..."where did you get that balloon!" Not just any balloon ...That Remarkable Balloon. The answer is by the Giant Giraffe south of here, look for the clown. As long as I stay at that location I will make $5,000 dollars!
So how did a vertical exploration help?
A vertical exploration allows you to look above and below potential marketplaces to find the best location to position yourself. If I was selling normal, cheap balloons in unlimited supply then I would have chosen to set up at the heart of the 'parents with children traffic' as they enter the children's areas, before they get bombarded with options.
Lets say I want to get one small message out to the internet marketing world.
Here is the message:
Vertical Marketing:Lets say I have ordered my 1st report on the phrase "vertical marketing" and I am going to use this to position my message in the market place.
"If you are in the business of advertising and marketing you are using an outdated model that is 6 months old, this is killing your profits! Get a current view of your market every month and use this report to inspire the best marketing strategies you will ever have ...Order your vertical marketing report here!"
First glance at the report reveals what markets are above me!
- Business
- Marketing
- Advertising
Lets look further down but still above my topic / theme:
- Market Research
- Sales Marketing
- Business to Business
- Search Engine Optimization
- Internet Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing
- Marketing Strategies
- Business Marketing
If they were magazine titles, which one would I most like my message to appear in?
If they were conferences, which one would I most like to speak at?
You will notice that none of the markets above me contain the word vertical, this could be a good reason to zoom back upwards and get a report on the word 'Vertical' to check what are the most popular markets underneath that word. But for now my report does show me whats around and next to my topic of "Vertical Marketing":
- Vertical Marketing System
- Horizontal Marketing
Finally I can see whats below me and what should be included in the conversation:
- Vertical Marketing Strategy
- A Vertical Marketing Plan
- A Vertical Marketing Network
- Contractual Vertical Marketing
- Corporate Vertical Marketing
- Market Plan
- Pay Per Click Marketing
- Marketing Master
- Marketing Niche
- Help Marketing
- Strategy Books
- Project Marketing
- Business Maps
- Business Market Research
The more I zoom in and out, float up and down, explore my market vertically ...the more informed and successful I will beat writing my message and getting that message out to as many people as possible in an efficient and profitable way.
This is the Power Of Vertical Marketing!
Technorati Tags: Blogs-money-marketing-million-Tips










