BET bets on Niche Targets

Not too long ago ethnic targets were considered akin to a niche market.  My how things have changed!

"Conscious Sisters" is a segment of BET female viewers that focus on family and home

Target segmentation overall looks more like niche segmentation.  In a long tail perspective this is the future of identifying relevant market focus.  Niche markets used to imply the identification of an almost impossibly small portion of the market.  Now the word niche helps to identify a set of attributes that makes any grouping relevant.  Niche means that the elements binding that target together are relevant to each member of the target market.

BET CEO Debra Lee recently spoke about the intense consumer research BET does to connect with their target at a recent Nielsen Consumer 360 gathering.    As you can see, these targets don’t look like the traditional broad strokes of a mass media focus.  But you can easily see how each member of these Niche markets would be able to pick out and relate to their groups.

1. STRIVERS – An ambitious group of opinion leaders aged 20-40. These young leaders are rising in their communities and the corporate world.
2. CONSCIOUS SISTERS – These are women who are keen on aspects of their culture and spirituality. They focus on family and cooking meals at home.
3. TECHFLUENTIALS – World ambassadors aged 20-30 who are making the world a little smaller using technology, organizing fundraisers online, using skype, social media and more.
4. BRIGHT HORIZONS – This tech-savvy segment is focused on education and friends, gaming, mobile and social media.

BET reinforces the importance of niche.  It’s not about large age or gender groups.  It’s not about income or ethnicity.  It’s not even about values and behaviors.  It’s about all of these combined and it look like a long tail niche target strategy to deliver a relevant message to a receptive consumer.