ANOTHER TREND? NO ROOM IN THE MIDDLE ANYMORE? BIG AND BROAD VS. TIGHT AND TARGETED?

As readers of my blog know, I tend to have my “theories” about trends and areas to focus. One of the recent ones was around the emergence of SIMPLICITY as a trend that is being driven not just by the economic crisis and challenges that mean suppliers of products and services are stripping back offers to the core offer to help make them more affordable, but also by the increasing uncertainty about safety of so many ingredients, products and the such like making simple offers feel better choices.

Another thing that I have increasingly been observing is that to compete and succeed there are also 2 clear way to proceed: either be big, broad and loud or highly targeted, niche and specific. Think the middle ground is doomed territory.

Here are some examples

From the world of TV
Big event shows are booming. Take a show like “X-Factor” in the Uk (or “American Idol”, “Britain’s Got Talent” etc). These are big shows that are capture the imagination of the public on a broad and big scale. They become intensive shared experience viewing, and create spin off content, comment and interactions across many media and medium (blogs, newspapers, twitter, Facebook). Many (like me) watch the show with a dialogue going on via Twitter, Facebook with friends and others. They are loud big and dominate media for a period of time.

Then on the other extreme are smaller, highly targeted and specific shows and channels that have a tight and dedicated target that watch and get engrossed in. The numbers are not huge but they are very attractive and make money because they are efficient at reaching and talking to that target and interest. The problem is all the stuff in the middle that is expensive to make and get good enough viewers but neither huge to sell broad appeal advertising to or specific enough to sell very targeted stuff. It seems that Drama series fall into this area. They are expensive to write and make and even with several million viewers they just cannot make money.

From the world of news/ newspapers
There are 2 things I consume. The Times (a general interest newspaper that gives me a broad view of the world) and the CHiswickW4 (a weekly email with news from the suburb I live in). I love both. They are not on the same scale as the TV example but interesting. ChiswickW4 runs ads for local events and services and always helpful, The Times the big new things and services.

It is also clear that people will only pay for content (especially online) if it is specialist and expert, and not big general things like day-today news.


I think it is time to think about one’s product offering. Maybe within a brand there maybe some big, broad offers and then tight efficiently targeted lines that can be very efficient and profitable as you only need to talk to a small tight target who can be reached through tight media/ medium offering.