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So says the author of best-selling business book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of business is selling less of more.

In the image, basic 'for everyone' stuff is on the left, and the specialty goods peter off to the right - into a long tail.

Here's why should you care about this.

Do you have any special interest? Are you an audiophile, or you love tennis, are you a pianist, or is your health your number one priority?

Would you, as an audio nut, buy your audio equipment at Best Buy? As a tennis lover would you buy your racquet at Wal-Mart? As a health nut, would you shop at Safeway or Food Chopper?

Special interests are niches in the marketplace. Different people are nuts about different things. In fact, one's person's "good" could easily be another's "bad." Think choices of music, food, or night-time lifestyle for you and your kids, or you and certain friends.

If you love your weightloss or energy product and think it's special you will pay what you have to for it. Because it matters to you. And others in your niche will be happy to pay for it, too, because they feel like you do.

But not those for whom weight or energy doesn't matter like it does for you. They'll buy the 'for everyone' version (if they bother at all). Here's the difference between the plain jane variety and your special product line:

"If a producer (or a product) intends something to be absolutely right for one audience, it will, by definition, be wrong for another.

The compromise necessary to make something appeal to everyone means that it will almost certainly not appeal perfectly to anyone -- that's why they call it the lowest common denonimator."

Aren't you glad your product (or business) is NOT for everyone? They'd have to have been so compromised in quality that they'd only appeal to those who don't mind getting the lowest common denominator stuff.

And for that they can go to WalMart or GNC or Best Buy.

What if you focus on your niche - those who care about your product or business values like you do? Niche products like ours are meant to appeal strongly to a narrow set of tastes, meaning tens of thousands, rather than tens of millions.

That would be enough, wouldn't it?

P.S. They don't tend to say "It's too expensive," either.
P.P.S. Yes there's crud in the tail. There's crud everywhere. :)