# Defining my target market, niche



## Maxcat (Nov 23, 2014)

Who am I targeting with mostly funny slogans, wordplay, sarcasm/arrogance combo, puns, some geek, etc. Some very basic designs and/or a piece of clip art or two. No truly artistic designs.

I don't have any true focus, I write down what comes to me and its all over the map. Most would be male targeted (some can be twisted to appeal to a female audience) with average to above average intelligence to get the word play nuances. 

I know the prevailing wisdom is to target a tight niche but I don't really seem to have one.

Thanks


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

Targeting a tight niche market may get you a higher price per piece but you have a limited customer base. The companies that make billions instead of millions, target the Wahlmart/Nascar crowd.  No offense, nascar rules, wahlmart makes me sad, but that's were the average dollar is walkin around.


----------



## Giddygrafix (Sep 2, 2009)

You can have more than one niche and they're listed in your OP... funny, sarcasm, geek, etc. 
Categorise your products into their niches, which will give you something to focus your marketing efforts on. 

We sell all sorts of printed T shirts, but we don't rank for 'printed T shirts'... we sell Northern Soul T shirts and rank quite well for that and other niches... but it's taken a few years and a lot of work to get there. 

Good luck.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

Male is not a niche, it is a category. It is 49% of the population... Male NASCAR Fans is still a category. 

A niche is Jeff Gordon Fans, and even then it is fairly broad. A true niche is Jeff Gordon fans that HATE Dale Jr. 

Can you see the difference. NASCAR is really broad and you will have a great deal of leakage. But if you can find a shirt that get's Jeff Gordon fans that hate Dale Jr. you will have activation and sales. The real ninja move would be to create marketing that pits Gordon and Earnhardt fans against each other and then when emotions are up and let them express those emotions by buying a shirt. 

The key is in the targeting and the battlefield preparation. 

Real estate investors will tell you the money is made when they purchase the home, not when the sell it. 

My philosophy is to find a market, see if I can create a shirt that get's folks excited and buying through testing, and then work like a madman to drive sales. It is all about the targeting and the testing. 

Best of luck and good luck driving sales!


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

By nascar crowd, I don't mean shirts that say, ''Nascar'' I mean the average person.


----------



## DreamKatari (May 8, 2015)

So a Niche is breaking a category all the way down to its lowest form.

Thanks for the piece of info.


----------



## ElToro (May 18, 2015)

Keep doing what you are doing and your market will define itself. You will have to work on narrowing it down as far as you need to.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

DreamKatari said:


> So a Niche is breaking a category all the way down to its lowest form.
> 
> Thanks for the piece of info.


What I try to do is really drive down as deep as I can with a market and find the passion. Now I do not have a store front, I market mainly on Facebook so I can segment a national audience.

Meaning, instead of trying to sell to 100,000 people in my community that have varied interests, I try to sell to a group of 10,000 across the United States that share 1 very specific interest. 

Usually these folks feel under-appreciated and when their unique interest is focused upon and celebrated, they are "emotionally" drawn to "support the cause." Since themed apparel is not a necessity, one needs to create an emotional connection to create a sale...

I have been doing client work as a marketer for a number of years and it is intriguing how creating an emotional connection and then a relationship with the prospect is so important to activate the consumer into making the purchase. It is a complex dance, more art then science. 

It is why testing is so important, and being willing to walk away from a design that you are emotionally attached to, if the sales are not there. 

Of course, when you hit a great design and theme with a passionate story, then expand it out to a broader group and expand the product line beyond tshirts. That is when you will make the real money, and maybe even create a brand... 

Look at the About us page on Life is Good, or Vineyard Vines. They both started out selling tshirts out of the back of their cars. Now, they are huge brands.


----------



## DreamKatari (May 8, 2015)

Thank you!

You have any books to read on marketing. You know your stuff!

Also id like to talk with you further if you dont mind. Like on skype or somethinh


----------



## Maxcat (Nov 23, 2014)

Printor said:


> Targeting a tight niche market may get you a higher price per piece but you have a limited customer base. The companies that make billions instead of millions, target the Wahlmart/Nascar crowd.  No offense, nascar rules, wahlmart makes me sad, but that's were the average dollar is walkin around.


 Actually my ideas are like a giant Walmart with something for everyone. I have about 8 single spaced pages of ideas. A multi month, never ending, brain storming session. I haven't really gone back and reviewed my ideas and I'm sure there will be many that I won't like.

I don't think I lack focus I've just been writing down everything.

Some ideas can carry through multiple themes but then many are stand alone, like one bowling themed, shirt, one artist theme shirt with no single market participant.

I need to find the people that bought the shirt I saw all over that said "Sarcasm is my natural defense against stupidity" or "one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor". That's the kind of product I need to first while working on some design skills for more complex work.

I'm not sure how to target ads to find these buyers. Further complicating matters due to my day job which means I really need to fly under the radar personally. Trying to guilt friends/family/coworkers into helping is limited. 

Any additional thoughts are appreciated.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

DreamKatari said:


> Thank you!
> 
> You have any books to read on marketing. You know your stuff!
> 
> Also id like to talk with you further if you dont mind. Like on skype or somethinh


Sure, that will be good. This week I am nuts, and next week I am getting out of town with the wife for our anniversary. The next week I launch a new line I have been working on, but I should have a little time for a call then. 

I will send you a PM with my Skype information.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

Maxcat said:


> ...
> 
> I need to find the people that bought the shirt I saw all over that said "Sarcasm is my natural defense against stupidity" or "one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor". That's the kind of product I need to first while working on some design skills for more complex work.
> 
> ...


I have the same list of ideas. Now tighten them up. 

Here is how I would attack the "one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor" concept. 

First, who would wear a shirt like this in public? My guess bartenders, college students, and early 20 somethings. Anyone else would be telling a bad story about themselves. And the design for a girl will be different than a boy. 

So I would maybe test a target sample of a few of these subgroups on Facebook with a couple designs incorporating the theme. See who clicks through, and who buys. Then tighten up the concept, the ad copy, and then test again. Once the campaign is profitable, ramp it up in volume and you can print some money... 

(Back in the day I learned this lesson about online advertising, typically your first efforts will lose money. But if you can keep tweaking the ads, or product, or target you often can turn the campaign from a loser into a big winner. This is the formula the big affiliate marketers used.)


----------



## NoXid (Apr 4, 2011)

Maxcat said:


> Actually my ideas are like a giant Walmart with something for everyone. I have about 8 single spaced pages of ideas. A multi month, never ending, brain storming session. I haven't really gone back and reviewed my ideas and I'm sure there will be many that I won't like.
> 
> I don't think I lack focus I've just been writing down everything.
> 
> ...


I've been accumulating ideas for years (decades). Many share a certain attitude or sense of humor, but all sorts of topics.

You might consider having a couple different product lines, if like me you find that you can identify several different incompatible categories of designs in you idea file. I'm only actively working with one for now, but I already own the URL and name for the second one, so I can just ignore those ideas until I get around to taking on a second site/brand.

As to targeting ... people who like X may also be known to like Y, or people who read/play/own Q may be also be interested in Z. So while there may not be a demographic defined on fBook for people who wear tequila T-shirts, you can probably safely assume that that is a subgroup of college students and a certain age range.

These ideas are a product of your mind/experience/etc. What are _your_ interests? Hobbies? Passions? I found that one of my key interests/passions since I was a kid is a great marker for people likely to enjoy my designs ... so consider yourself customer Zero and dissect your own demographics. I didn't really get this myself until I started attending some activities geared toward that passion of mine and realized that THESE ARE MY PEOPLE! We have so much more in common than the one interest, T-shirts being one of them.


----------



## custeez (May 23, 2009)

If you have a slogan shirt in a WalMart, you are competing with millions of other products trying to sell to someone who wants to buy a battery.

If you have a slogan shirt in a slogan shirt store, you have a much better chance of making a sale beacuse you are trying to sell to someone who wants to buy what or something similar to what you are selling.

You don't want to be "WalMart" as it was described above. You want to be the go to source for a specific niche. This does not limit you to only one niche. But you'll have far more success if your shirts identify with a specific individual instead of trying to appeal to a mass audience. People don't shop at WalMart because they have all of the products. People shop at WalMart because people believe they have the best prices on all of the products. They got to the top of the "best price" niche first. So when people want the best price...they go to WalMart.

Funny slogans shirts is a category in a market...it's not a niche. The market is tshirts. The category is funny slogans. You have to go deeper. You said geek. Now you're getting somewhere...geek slogan shirts.

Now, that is not the same as nerd slogan shirts.

So, you go into the geek slogan shirts. Now, they may have above average intelligence in math or physics, but may totally miss a funny literature slogan shirt that an English or History major would get. So trying to sell a geek shirt to an English major probably wouldn't work out.

You "don't have a niche" because you haven't gone into it deeply enough.


----------



## DreamKatari (May 8, 2015)

I like this explanation


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

Again, by ''Wahlmart/Nascar crowd'' I just mean the largest target market there is. and no I do not mean put shirts in ''Target" I understand your trying to sell shirts not establish a brand, which is more likely to be successful than a brand, starting a clothing brand makes the restaurant biz. look like a sure bet. A ''Saying'' alone will require finding the niche for each shirt. I won't spend my money at Wahlmart, but most capital investors will tell you that when wahlmart calls, you better answer the phone. very few people get to a point where turning down Wahlmart is a good financial decision.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

Printor said:


> I understand your trying to sell shirts not establish a brand, which is more likely to be successful than a brand, starting a clothing brand makes the restaurant biz. look like a sure bet.


Printor, you just made my day and made me laugh so hard with this line as it was a direct hit...

I have my degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and owned a few restaurants and a catering company over a 15 year window of my youth. I have the bald head as a battle scar from the trenches of the restaurant biz. 

It also may be why I love the idea of a t-shirt company. It combines the rigid discipline of cost controls and consistency with the need for artistic flare at opportune moments.


----------



## Printor (Apr 16, 2015)

I've been printing start up ''BRANDS/CLOTHING LINES'' for other people, for so long, I feel it is a curse to say I'm starting a Brand or Line, if you are not designing and cut/sewing your own, or at least retagging them. I tell myself I put pictures on stuff and hope people like it. We have projects now where customers ask us if these are our own brands?, and it feels good to hear them say it, but I'm still afraid to say it out loud myself.


----------



## TeeBird100 (Apr 13, 2015)

Printor said:


> I've been printing start up ''BRANDS/CLOTHING LINES'' for other people, for so long, I feel it is a curse to say I'm starting a Brand or Line, if you are not designing and cut/sewing your own, or at least retagging them. I tell myself I put pictures on stuff and hope people like it. We have projects now where customers ask us if these are our own brands?, and it feels good to hear them say it, but I'm still afraid to say it out loud myself.


You might be getting a call from me tomorrow, I am putting pictures on stuff as well.


----------

