Target Market vs. Niche Market

[armenh]

What is the difference between a Target Market and Niche Market? Or do they mean the same thing and can be used interchangeably?

[websiteprmtn]

These two terms are not at all same...

Target markets pertains to the market to which your product caters to. This market can comprise of all the people of country, or people of a particular class, or people using a particular service.... any thing for that matter..

but when you talk about niche market, it means a market which is very focussed. For eg, a company makes a car which costs 30L+. Now it is obvious that the company cannot target every person, or say people of all class cant buy that car... Hence .. it means that the company has manufactured this car for a specific high class society... hence we say.. this product (here the car) has a very niche market ....

Hope i have made clear..

Regards

[Future of Edu]

Good question. While the two words COULD be used interchangeably, you probably shouldn't as most do not.

Normally when you ask the question "what is your target market", you get an answer that includes a broad group. IE, teachers, college students, entrepreneurs etc. However, you can ask the same question to an experienced entrepreneur and they will give you a more specific market. IE, teachers with children, college students but specifically students on scholarship (i dont know what product that would be lol), etc. So you see how they can be interchangeable? You can target a niche market.

Hope that helps.

Enjoy Life,
Nick

[rogercbryan]

They are used in conjunction.

"My target market is the niche market of emo influenced individuals"
"My target market is the niche market of skateboarders"

Your target market is the group that you will try to sell your product or service to. A niche market may be one of those groups.

[armenh]

Thanks for making it clear!

[peteVA]

I might put it the other way around. You could have a target market of dog owners. Then you could have several niches, for each breed. In fact, in many cases niche is even more defined. It may be a specific color or sub-set of a breed.

Think of a niche as an upside down triangle or a funnel. The lower down you go, the tighter the defining parameters.

Say the parents of twins who live in homes valued at over $500,000 who own a Rhodesian Ridgeback. And if you really want to zero in, you can add - and drive a Lexus.

Believe it or not, postal mailing list people can merge-purge such a list.

[armenh]

So if as a company we are targeting Residenial Homeowners, with an income of $250,000 and above, that would be considered a target market.
A niche market would be marketing our products to specifically doctors?