Serve the Niche

I have odd tastes. The shows I watch have low Neilson ratings, the music I listen to is almost never on the top 40, and you probably haven't seen (or even heard of) most of my favorite movies. Like I said, I have odd tastes. I'm a niche man. Most people don't see the value in what I like, but there is a small group of us that does. Niches are often overlooked by marketers and companies that are looking to sell to the "Top 40" crowd. I think this is a mistake, and I think the internet is the answer to fixing it. 

A Japanese gaming company created a game this year to celebrate the 15th anniversary of a franchise. This franchise was once popular in the United States, and is still very popular in Japan. By about the middle of the last decade, this franchise no longer had the mass appeal in the U.S. that it had when it first started. For this reason the Japanese company has so far decided no to release the game in the U.S. I understand the reasoning. If the franchise is no longer popular enough to reach a mass audience, it probably is not cost effective to manufacture and distribute the game to the small niche that desires it.

 I think there is a different answer though. All major gaming systems have internet capability, so why not sell the game to English speaking customers through digital download? That would eliminate the cost of manufacturing and distributing the physical game. This company could be profiting from the U.S. niche of gamers who want the product simply by translating it into English and offering at a downloadable game on the device. 

This idea goes beyond just video games. TV shows are another area where companies could be making a profit off of niches. One of my favorite shows is the 90s sitcom Just Shoot Me. I have the first three seasons on DVD. There were seven seasons of the show, but I only have three on DVD because they stopped producing the show on DVD after producing season 3. I'm guessing that between manufacturing the DVDs and distributing them, that the company that owns the rights to Just Shoot Me wasn't making much of a profit. If these companies wanted to make a profit off of the fans of shows like Just Shoot Me, why not offer all of the seasons of the show for purchase by digital download or internet streaming? Again, this avoids a lot of the costs associated with serving the niche through DVD sales, but it companies could make money off of die hard fans of the show. I would probably pay a little too much just to have access to the entire series. If you want my money as a consumer, the ball is in your court to start serving the niche.