By now you have certainly heard a great deal about 'niche marketing.' This internet marketing model involves discovering and servicing smaller market segments instead of seeking to reach the always-elusive 'general public.' Niche marketing is a successful and growing marketing trend, in large measure, because it takes advantage of current social trends in a way traditional marketing cannot.

We live in a diverse society comprised of relatively small groups with specific interests. Attempts to reach everyone are doomed to fail because of this diversity. Marketers once believed in a variation of the 'melting pot' theory, believing that assimilation within a society would lead to common characteristics that could be tapped by a savvy sales expert. Although there is truth to this perspective, we are learning that smaller market segments are retaining unique characteristics and interests. In fact, the melting pot's ability to bring us together is having the once unforeseen marketing consequence of producing smaller, more insulated groups.

Our increasingly globalized world, as long predicted, is making us more alike. Simultaneously, however, it is allowing us to pursue very individualized and particularized interests. The internet, in particular, facilitates the creating of niches. One's interest in saltwater aquariums, for instance, would have been a relatively individual project only a few years ago. Now, due in large measure to the ease of communication afforded by the internet, one can join and interact with other saltwater aquarium aficionados easily. What was once an unconnected collection of interested individuals has been transformed into a legitimate, albeit niche, market segment.

Smart marketers have realized the internet's power to serve as a home to smaller market niches and that traditional marketers may fail to adequately serve these virtual communities. For instance, there is a vibrant saltwater aquarium community online, but who is really trying to win their business outside of a few companies who are already well known within the community? The answer, a fortunate one for niche marketers, is that relatively few people are making a legitimate effort at supplying the community with informational and other products.

Increased use of the internet on a global scale is creating solid market niches that are woefully underserved by traditional sales and marketing strategies. Appropriate niche marketing allows the properly directed marketer to tap into these underserved niches successfully and profitably.