The counterintuitive secret to brand growth

It can be so tempting to cast a wide net and appeal to the broadest possible audience.

To showcase all the amazing benefits your brand has to offer.

Because why would you want to risk losing anyone who could be interested in your brand?

It is such a natural tendency to want to attract the widest range of clients possible that we forget that the secret to growth is counterintuitive.

The more niche you get in terms of your positioning, the more growth your brand will see.

Mass to niche

It’s basic human psychology: we are attracted to what stands out. See a red car in a mass of blue ones and you will immediately be zoning in on the red one.

The more specific you become in terms of your brand’s purpose, offer and customers, the more you will stand out to your ideal clients.

For purpose-led brands that are bringing new conversations and disruptive innovation, this is the key to success. You must get comfortable with the fact that you are not going to appeal to everyone right away. And that’s ok!

The bolder your positioning, the more you will attract the innovators and early adopters who believe what you believe. And the more you nurture those innovators and early adopters, the more they will talk about you.

That’s how you grow. Not by going head on with mass brands and spending millions in media trying to be heard above the crowd. But by taking a bold stand and embracing your niche!

Case in point

One of my very talented ex-colleagues is working on an innovative cleaning device. It can be used to refresh delicate fabrics instead of dry cleaning, to spot clean stains, to deep clean your trainers or your sofa and it is better for the environment as it uses no harmful chemicals and only very little water.

So many benefits. Such a wide audience!

I read through some of the first qualitative research that the brand did and, believe it or not, this amazing innovation fell completely flat. There were too many benefits. No one trusted it despite the convincing demos!

The CEO ended up telling me that they initially spent millions trying to go head-to-head with mass cleaning brands before realising they would never cut through.

They realised they would have to be more choiceful and specific in the brand positioning. The brand started targeting high-end fashion brands as a way to clean and refresh their returns and reduce the shocking amount of waste that online purchases have created in the fashion industry (50% of products ordered online get returned and most then end up in the bin!). This very niche positioning has enabled the brand to grow and they are now expanding to a second offer as a sneaker cleaning service.

Personal branding expert @Kait Ledonne also shares her experience working with a client who grew her audience from 1’000 followers to 10’000 in one year. Her posts were getting 100+ reactions and her business leader following loved her. Then, she decided to experiment by niching her audience to focus specifically on Chiefs of Staff, a much narrower audience. Her posts shot from 100+ to 1000+ just like that and her following grew ten-fold.

It’s time to get bold

If you are struggling to get traction on an innovation, especially with something that challenges the status quo, chances are you need to get more niche in terms of your positioning.

Let go of those fears of losing out by not appealing to everyone and embrace the opportunity to be bold for your perfect niche!