Transcript

Niche is now mainstream | Ayush Jain | TEDxHindujaCollege

so uh before I move on to my topic and what I'm going to elaborate on today I'd like to show you a few product names just to set the context of the talk here so how many how many of you here identify these products so just for those who can't read it's urgent forth thought and right these are three really popular products and which may not sound so I'll try and give you a hint I try and make it simpler for you yes urchin is the original version of Google analytics four thought is the original version of PowerPoint and rightly is the original version of Google docs these were products which were solving a very specific Niche problem in that sector so much so that these independent innovators were later acquired by the Giants of their field and the rest as they say is history which brings me to my topic for today that Niche is now mainstream now before I go deeper into that and talk about the aspects of Niche I think I take this opportunity to explain what we do and what we are all about more so because with the kind of examples that come in later our story might not sound as interesting and glamorous so I'll just take this opportunity to glorify our achievements as much as I can so we are humming whe a product Innovation company based out of Mumbai we essentially take unique ideas and build them into Innovative never seen before products and then we look to license or partner with established Brands to get them out in the market so the kind of products we have is a reable t-shirt like the one that I'm wearing we have uh something called the crical application we have something called the walking on water ride and a product like the political Trum card game and above all this we have a flagship product which is the Gladius Glade now all these sign side essentially what we did was we identified a very specific Niche problem and found a solution to that today after one and a half years the B is Market ready we have a patent over it internationally the B is launch in UK us and India we have an approval from MCC the lawmaking body of cricket for the bag to be played with in all forms of international cricket and we have shown the back to a lot of international players and coaches and got really positive feedback so during this journey there is one thing which is strengthened in my belief and this is what I want to share today as a pro of thought is that Niche is now main now if you look at a few years back the kind of startup the kind of companies that used to come in India we have all this flip cart so if you look at a few years back the kind of companies that came in India we had the kinds of the flip cart snap de Cola zato book my show all of them looking at the macro problems of the society all of them trying to create products that Target the whole Mass so it's to say but in today's day and age you'll see a certain SE of innovators a c a certain section of entrepreneurs who trying to go Niche who trying to identify a specific problem in a very particular sector and finding an effective solution for that now don't get me wrong here I'm not saying that what ola zato or book my show is doing is wrong obviously not they're doing a brilliant job at what they're doing but what I want to present is a food for thought is that for young innovators for young entrepreneurs a lot of times with the BR milon ideas they have it is possibly a smarter route to go for a specific Niche which they identify and to delve deeper into that I'll kind of Define I'll kind of demaret the niche into two parts one is the product Niche and second is the marketing Niche so talking about the product Niche if you look at the kind of I mean if you if you ask me what how how we came from an idea of the B to an actual product I tell you it's been it's been quite an enriching Journey when we started we did not know anything about how the bats are made or why the bats have been of a particular shape over all these years we obviously had to read a lot we had to talk to a lot of players to identify what goes on behind leing the B but we did all that we did all that because it was a problem we very passionately connected with it was something we very personally wanted to improve on being huge cricket fans we could not really see what was happening with the team every uh Foreign Tour and we wanted to find a solution to that problem we identified there's a market which will which will grasp the solution when we make it and because of a very defined problem statement in that Niche we did not lose the direction we did not lose the direction when there were lows and every innovator every entrepreneur would agree with me that there are obvious lows in your journey there will be lows but you able to go through that because you have that passion you have that personal connection with the problem and that is an advantage of working in a niche I mean to give an example if there are music fans here or say a guitarist all of us know as a guitar as I mean as a music lover or even if you play the guitar you know it even well that carrying a guitar is so much of a problem the neck protrudes out and you know when you're traveling in a train or a bus it becomes quite a hassle to carry a guitar right now imagine if you could create a guitar that could hold itself imagine if the neck would fold and carrying the guitar would be so much more convenient in need how cool would that be right and obviously it will not be easy you'll have to go through a lot of problems you'll have to identify uh that the tuning of the guitar doesn't get hamper the durability of the product doesn't get hampered but you'll do all that you'll do all that because it's a specific Niche that you very personally relate to I mean I'm sorry to burst the bubble a product like that already exists but the same thing can be done in food in photography in travel in any Niche that you identify with and the good part is that in today's day and age when you have identified that Niche when you've created a product which resonates with that Niche it is much more easier to reach that which really brings to me brings me to my second point which is the marketing nich now as cliche as it may sound today's day and age is much more digitally connected than ever before I mean you look at a few years back the only possible means of marketing your product were possibly TV newspapers hings radio and all of that could not make you reach to that specific target audience that you want you look at today's means you have you I mean you can practically divide the world into Twitter hashtags and Facebook groups the kind of target audience that you want to very specifically reach with your Niche product and that is possible in today's age even if you're targeting orates or government organizations they're much more approachable because of the digital connections speaking from our own Journey if you look at we've got an approval from the bad for the bad from MCC the meor Cricket Club in London we've shown the bad to the likes of vat Koh to Rahul D even with the God himself sain tendar and he could do all that because I mean obviously it was not easy but we could do all that because of the digital connections because in today's day and age they much more approach than ever before and social media the Power of social media if you identify your Niche well and you want to reach out to them it is much more possible a very interesting anecdote that comes to mind is pre charge so an interesting story that I heard is when pre- charge started pre- charge as a few of you might know offers free coupons every time you recharge from their portal so quite understandably their target audience was the college ground because they always looking for discounts and for free coupons so they they did a really uh interesting thing to reach out to them they made a fake Facebook account of a pretty looking girl called Niha Singh and obviously when you get a friend request from a pretty looking girl and she's called Niha which is very obvious for every Delhi girl then you tend to accept it pretty much in 30 days she ended up having 5,000 Facebook friends with time she started posting a bit about preacher through her profile and that is how they ended up having their first few customers and valuable customer feedback that is the power of Niche marketing when you look at social media and the better part is that when you identify your Niche when you're trying when you give them enough value they're also ready to pay that premium they're also ready to be loyal to you an example like Starbucks I mean it looks it look I mean it seems tough when you look at them possibly a few decades back when they started but when they did they were targeting a very specific Niche they were targeting the kind of people who T of coffee more than just as a beverage they wanted conversations over coffee and that is who Starbucks targeted so effectively that the consumer base soon became their fan base and once you have their fan base even a Salman Khan movie can work right so the same thing applies to a niche customer segment and the fan base is very effective when you're working in a niche just in my last segment to conclude I'd like to show you a few opportunities that exist in nich segments just to get you excited about the numbers so when you're looking at the niche a very possible you know extension of creating a product is possibly getting acquired by one of the Giants of your field as happened with ENT forth and brly so when you look at the tech companies across the world the top tech company there are very exciting numbers someone like Google has done 186 Acquisitions Microsoft has done 187 Acquisitions Facebook has done 86 Acquisitions Apple has done 73 Twitter has done 50 Yahoo has done 114 Acquisitions those are numbers which are very exciting for a young innovator on an entrepreneur in fact if you even look at the consumer Brands you look at Nik you look at PNG you look at even Brands like Lego all of them have dedic ated programs through which they you they reach out to external innovation in fact if you speak to their heads of innovation they'll say a lot of times their own R&D get becomes stagnant and that is why they reach out with their problem statements to the consumer themselves you don't even have to look that far you can look at India I mean the most interesting thing about India is when you look at a niche even that is too big because of the absolute number of people that we have in India you can look at the opportunities that are there in these segments you can look at the vernacular languages we have something like 8.3 CR Bengali speaking people we have 7.4 CR telu speaking people and 7.2 CR marati speaking people the numbers are same when you look at at Tamil or aard or even the N imagine if you could create a product for the vernacular language crowd a flip cart only exist in English imagine if you could create that in balii it's a huge Market out there you look at the senior citizens currently in India you look at the age above 60 we have 10 CR people a number that is expected to Triple by 2050 30 Crow people by 2050 and there are no specified products for that market it's such a good opportunity to tap into and similarly their school kids their college crowd their Backpackers their pilgrims their train tavers their musicians there's Book Lovers there's the list is absolutely endless you could segment them religion wise region wise you could segment them ethnicity wise gender wise there are huge opportunities and every every one of the sector will have a lot of Niche problems that you could look into and solve so in the end I just like to say that not every time do you have to look far and wide sometimes you just have to look close look Niche strive to create value in a niche that you identify with and the valuations would follow themselves thanks a lot