Good morning Reptile Entrepreneurs, this is your host Bill Strand, and today we will find the overlap of product marketing and green banana roaches. How, in the world, can you not be hooked by that. Yep, podcast gold coming your way!

So, what is up here? As I have alluded to in other episodes, I am creating a class in how to put together a website. Well, in addition to that we will be creating a logo. And then we will starting a social media outreach. And I decided that I would create a company and use that to demonstrate each of these aspects of creating a company. I figure the best way to explain it is to do it and have you watch each step as it is done for a real company building. So, the next step was to figure out what company to put together. I mean, it has to be a real company and do real business to be the most effective teaching tool, right? Well, there is another aspect to this Reptile Entrepreneur outreach I am doing. I want to encourage the most bizarre corners of our community to feel like they can have a voice and to start a business or social media educational outreach. And, just to be clear, when I say bizarre corners I mean things like flying geckos, hermit crabs, jelly fish, and frogs that look like bird poop. If that is your passion I want to show you how to build a community around that passion and how to serve that community in both education and product. Easy to say, right? Well, my first idea was to do chameleon art, but I felt that was still in my area of strength. I have a pretty good reach in the chameleon community so I wanted an example that showed a little bit more of a challenge, but still something I would enjoy working on. And then it came to me. Yes, my friends. You are now looking at the proud owner of the new business, greenbananaroach.com where you will learn all about the green banana roach and be able to buy starter colonies of your own. A business dedicated to green banana roaches. And I am putting my money and time where my mouth is. I will take you along with me as I build up the website, build up the social media outreach, create a podcast and YouTube channel, and go to a local reptile show to make a profit. Yep, this will be the example by which I show how to do each of these steps. All hail the green banana roach!

So, what does this have to do with niching down? Obviously, I have just niched down pretty far with this one. The green banana roach is kind of known in the market. It is an okay feeder. Nowhere near as good as a dubia for insectivorous reptiles. But it climbs glass and flies. So if your spouse was hesitant about you bringing dubia in the house, green banana roaches will be a doozy to convince. They scatter quickly so feeding them to your reptile is not a trivial task. I have to do each one by hand to make sure they are caught. Their major saving grace is that they are a beautifully striking green. And, honestly, very cool pets. The fact is that my colony of six years old has probably had one a year fed out. I have to admit I just like them! So, how can I build a business that brings in any kind of income large enough to go on my taxes? That, of course, is my challenge. Now, I have niched down, or hyper focused my efforts to prove a point – that it can be done. And if I can do it with a roach whose only main saving grace is that it is green then you can do it with a gecko that glides or a frog that looks like bird poop.

So, I had a specific reason for limiting my market size. The question comes up, how much should you limit your market? OR should you? Don’t we want as many customers as possible? The answers are “kind of” to all of those. So, please indulge me as I go over some product marketing basics. Deep down you already know all this, but putting it in words and terms will solidify your understanding. And I will interlace random stories that are at least amusing to me.

When we put together a plan for a product, one of the first things to do is select a customer base so we know what features are important. Now, I know it is natural to think about designing the product and then finding the market. We call that an engineering driven approach and that is almost always the wrong way to do it. Remember, I graduated an electronics engineer and moved into product marketing. So I know both sides. Designing a product and then throwing it over the fence to marketing to figure out how to sell it is common, but a quick path to failure. Now, if the president of the company doesn’t know better, which is frighteningly often, the marketing team is blamed. I watched this happen all the time. The right way to do a product development project is to start with the problem you are solving with a clear idea in mind as to whose problem that is. That would be your target customer. When you develop a product with a target customer in mind you are laser focused on a customer group and how you are fixing their problem. Marketing then becomes easy. Because their job is not to conjure up customers for this monstrosity that engineering has created that does everything, but solves no problem. Seriously…the number of products I have had dumped on my desk that were technological marvels, but solved zero problems that anyone cared about dwarfed the number of products that actually had any customers in mind when they were created. My job was, all too often, literally, to conjure up what problem this solved and put together a plan for the marketing team so they had a clue as to who they were trying to get a message across to! But anyone making a product should not be forcing other members of the company to figure out who you made it for.  That was a long way of saying that you need to identify your customer. What demographic of people are you solving the problem for? Those people are your market.

We don’t have as much of a problem in the reptile community because usually the person making the product is a highly experienced hobbyist who knows the problem intimately. And so the first product out is usually perfectly designed to solve a specific problem. So, while other industries are struggling with being too broad in their customer aspirations, we have a built in immunity to that! That is until our brain starts going. Then we think, hey, if I add this feature then this would be good for chameleons AND geckos. And my customer market will more than double! Here is your warning. That is a trap. Although it may be true that the market has doubled, there are two things to keep in mind. If you add on features so your one product is good for two markets, you are adding cost. Every feature almost always has a cost. Even if that cost is not financial, it is one more thing that can break and must be supported. If it does have a cost then half your market will be paying for a feature they don’t need.

The second thing to keep in mind is whether you will be able to reach that other market. The Total Addressable Market is not only which people groups can use your product, but which ones you can communicate to, convince,  and support. Do you have the financial and time resources to support two or three or whatever number markets? Fine, you will use social media and that is free. But not when it comes to your time. People who have tried to develop two separate markets know what I am talking about. Sure, it can be done, but plan for everything that is required to support that extra feature or additional market. No feature is free. Make sure everything on your product will influence the buying decision. If it doesn’t then I call a yellow flag warning. Seriously reconsider.

I have interviewed two people that have used 3D printing for their niche communities. David Brahms for the Green Tree Python and Emerald Tree Boa community and Eddy Garabito in the arboreal monitor community. Those are pretty niche communities. Both of those breeders know their community intimately and they know the exact problem they are solving with their products. Neither is doing this full time – yet – but they are laying the foundation with their niche products. Should they decide to take it to the next level it is a simple matter to just scale up what they have already built.

But, let’s work through a scenario.

Let’s say you have a significant presence in the Mexican Alligator lizard community. Abronia are fascinating lizards and have a small, but dedicated following. Say you have an idea for a special backdrop with bromeliad holding features specifically for Abronia that fits into commercially available cages. You might be worried that this would pigeon hole you in a small community which would not be large enough to sustain a product development effort? It is a valid concern. But I would suggest to you that that is exactly what you want. How much product do you think you can produce when you start? If you have a 3D printer then the output is your limit. And while you are getting your business feet under you, a light order load is probably your best friend. Here is the secret. You can start incredibly niched down. But that is in no way the end of your development. Do your Abronia backdrop that fits into standard production cages. Market that to your small, but dedicated community. Once that is going smoothly then you make a backdrop for crested geckos. I can guarantee you that you want to learn your lessons with a low quantity product.  And you’ll be able to establish your reputation as a business before stepping up a notch. And even if you call yourself Abronia Backdrops, everyone in the crested gecko community will just accept that as your name. We are not as pigeon-holed by names and products as we think. We have many unnecessary self-wrapped chains.

And what about this new Green Banana Roach.com business? Well, it is pretty niche to name the business Green Banana Roach. I mean, the Roach House would allow me all species of roaches for pets and feeders. Or maybe the Invert house so I can do roaches and spiders and millipedes. The wider my view the more I have to support my outreach with products and care sheets etc.

But, here is the truth of it. Sure, I will start focusing 100% on green banana roaches. But nothing at all stops me from expanding to Hissing Cockroaches or Ivory heads or Halloween hissers or…anything. And, nothing stops me from changing my name if I need to. But I will probably never need to even if I start selling things other than green banana roaches. Can you think of any examples of specific names that sell more than their name? Josh’s Frogs comes to mind. You can get dry goods, geckos, tarantulas, and now hermit crabs.  Now, I am sticking with green banana roach because I don’t have visions of this becoming a huge business. Its job is to show how to take a niche, and make a profitable business out of it. I am not envisioning this supporting my lifestyle. If it explodes in popularity then I won’t turn down GBR glory, but I am not seeing that happening right now. That said, I will put my effort into making it successful because that is such a better learning environment. I will enjoy the laser focused market demographic. It gives me a small group to market to, but, as we are learning, small groups aren’t that small when you bring in the internet. And, a proper marketing campaign of exposing more people to my passion for GBRs could expand the existing market. Remember, a passionate voice is attractive and can bring in people who are looking for their next thing.

Perhaps the easiest application of niching down is in deciding on a topic for a new podcast, YouTube channel or social media account. This is actually quite simple. You make it about what you are passionate about. Because you need to keep creating long after the initial excitement for something new wears off. And do not worry about number of listeners, viewers, or followers. The digital world is a big place and there will be people around the world, connected by the internet, that will gather around you. It is true that the more niche you go the fewer people you have, but, really, just what are you going to do with those numbers? Doing a podcast on politics because you want high numbers of downloads may get you sponsors and and revenue, but let’s not forget why I am making this podcast in the first place and why it is worth listening to. It is about you embracing what is important to you and turning it into something that can help or completely support your family. So we aren’t picking something because it is bigger. We are picking something because it is what speaks to us.

So, the overall message here is to embrace your niche. Your most powerful tool is your intimate knowledge of your community’s challenges and how to solve them. But it is important that you go with what you feel passionate about or else you will not be able fuel through everything you need to. And your customers/viewers or listeners will be positively affected by the enthusiasm you project. So, I can’t guarantee that your passion subject will be profitable or be built into a huge business. But I do believe that it is better to get up every day to your passion than to the product your brain said was a good financial idea. I know that goes against everything we grew up with telling us what jobs to study for. But this talk is not about the easiest way to riches. It is all about how to go about giving your passion the best chance possible to be your career. Do you believe happiness and fulfillment are top priority? As a father of a family I can say I believe this, but that I need the financial aspect of a well paying job to take care of my family. So, this is why I am encouraging you to consider where you passions lie, but I am also working on the tools you need to be as financially successful with it as possible. Warm feeling are great, but only after the bills are paid.

So, we have a lot ahead of us. I am still working on that website creation tutorial. Should have the first modules soon.

We’ll continue to talk niches and Total Addressable Market and the other details in future episodes. And I cannot wait to unveil greenbananaroach.com in all its glory.