Master of many or niche expert -should you market many services or get good at one?

[Leif Hansen]

I've heard quite a diverse number of opinions on this topic, and as I'm about to go through a major branding/identity/partnering/marketing shift in the next few months, I was curious to hear your thoughts.

The basic positions I've heard are:

1. You should advertise as many services as you feel you can truly deliver on -team building, strategic planning, brainstorming, conflict rez, leadership dev, you name it -so that you can fit as many needs as possible.

2. You should become an expert in one particular service, as niche as possible, and make that service and the value it provides so clear on your first page of site that someone immediately knows what they can expect from you. (ie "If you're a tech company with staff who just can't seem to relate beyond their screens, we can help your staff communicate more effectively using our highly engaging activities and trust-enhancing games." etc.)

3. YES, make one focus clear on the front page of a site (ideally where you shine the most), AND go ahead and list all the other things you can do in your 'services'.

What do YOU THINK? What do YOU DO?

[Marco Navarro]

Thanks for posting this subject Leif. After reading all the posts I find more clarity in my doing.
Im taking an online class about Theory U (www.theoryu.com) and Otto Schramer the creator of this tool (and former MIT professor) suggest the idea of prototyping. This is, once you have connected to the source of what you are here to do and what is emerging from the future you move into the action creating prototypes, small trials till you get to de objective. So I´ll try to define my bussines and my doing through practicing all the options posted in here.
Thanks to all

[Lucy Garrick]

Hi, Sorry to be a late comer on this question but I only recently joined AIN. I have something to add that I didn't see as I skimmed and it comes from 25 years in marketing. We always start with who you are trying to serve. Define your target markets and determine what they need. This will help you define which services you offer.

Hope that helps. Lucy

[Maureen E. Mc Bride]

Branding is about identification. :) One cannot define themselves as all things to all people.
Are you still doing your online radio show?

[Leif Hansen]

Gotcha.

And yes to Biznik Live, and have had some excellent nationally known authors --Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Robert Kiyosaki, Van Jones, Tim Ferriss, and more. You can check it out here. Actually, live show tomorrow 10a PST with Matthew Fraser, author of "Throwing Sheep in the boardroom" --fascinating book on social media/networks changing the world.

And here's an advance sneak peek at an experimental video interview with Seth Godin. If you don't read his blog, lets just say its #3 in google search of blog with 1.4 billion hits. Only problem is I blabbed so much in the original, I edited myself out of the final (almost). :)

[Maureen E. Mc Bride]

You might have over edited...:) It comes a crossed a bit like a monologue.

[Maureen E. Mc Bride]

Get good at, perfect up to three services, focus all your attentions and resources on those three
"Vertical markets", and once you are up and running, and need a greater challenge expand from your strengths to include your "brand extensions. Improv is a world of infinite choices. Business is a world of finite choices. Time is finite. Every thing you say yes to excludes other opportunities. You will work a day gig until you get your brain wrapped around an idea that runs against the grain of all things Improv.
MEM

[Leif Hansen]

Thanks MEM. Great advice, the only thing I didn't follow was your last sentence "until you get your brain wrapped around an idea that runs against the grain of all things Improv" could you try that one again?
Thanks,
leif

[Maureen E. Mc Bride]

That was my improv brain writing that sentence. And my personal conceit is that I am
a good communicator...LOL
The key concept is displacement: "Whatever you do rules out something else you don't do".
I believe it is very difficult for we think-outside-the-box types to accept that there are times we have to adopt the box, the norm, the formula, the system, the rules...in the interest of supporting ourselves with our work. One other option is to team up with an anal person who can tolerate our approach and let them run the business side. Unless you are a polymath!

[Mike Bonifer]

Hello Leif, sorry I'm a little slow to respond to the thread. I write about and teach improvisation for business. My suggestion is that Position 1 and Position 2 do not have to be mutually exclusive. How can you advertise many services and also brand yourself as an expert in one particular service? Simple: You are an expert in improvisation!

I feel strongly that all of us who are in the business of bringing improvisation to a larger world, especially to the world of business, should unite in promoting the singular AND diverse set of skills that the form can offer our clients. No matter how we slice, dice, package or promote it, Improvisation is the product. One thing. One area of expertise.

And this one product, this very specialized field to which most of us have devoted more years than a typical doctoral student, has more facets than the Hope Diamond: Listening, character, teamwork, openness to ideas, conflict resolution, positivity, multi-cultural communication, thematic cohesion, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. The list of benefits that this specialty offers clients has no horizon. In fact, we are just beginning the journey.

For 50 years, improvisation (I NEVER label it improv) has almost exclusively been the bailiwick of people who use it to create comedy in theaters. That's why I don't call it improv--the perception in the marketplace is improv=comedy. This is a perception that all of us who see the implications beyond comedy have to work together, in unity, to erase. Because we know that it has so much more to offer.

At my company, Gamechangers (www.gamechangers.com), we continually emphasize the 'duality' I've described above. We are highly specialized, experts in one very specific practice--improvisation--whose implications are far-reaching and can be applied to the solution of any business problem that requires collaboration. Which is all of them. For our current clients we are working in the areas of brand strategy (health care, media & entertainment), innovation (internet, automotive), leadership (financial services) and sustainability (media & entertainment). Our engagements last from three months to a year. We always lead with the 'idea' of improvisation and work very hard (and it is VERY hard work) to re-contextualize improvisation as being about much more than comedy. Once we've succeeded at that, we begin the collaboration with clients on creating custom curricula designed to solve specific business problems.

In my book, Gamechangers--Improvisation for Business in the Networked World, I present my case for the broad relevance of the form, especially as it pertains to the new networked business models (v. the Industrial Age business models of the past). We draw strong and clear distinctions between the 'scripted' behaviors demanded by the Industrial Age (see George W. Bush) and the improvisation required by the Networked World (see Barack H. Obama) The Industrial Age models are crumbling before our eyes, Leif. Everyone in business has the same questions, all a variation of 'What are we going to do now?'

The answer, like your brand strategy itself, is both simple and complex. The answer is 'We are going to improvise'. (Let us help you learn how.)

Hope this helps. Best of luck, and Happy Holidays!

Mike Bonifer

[Leif Hansen]

Hi MIke, thank you for your thoughtful response. Yes, it was helpful. I particularly like the (what should be) 'obvious' fact that one way to get beyond *some* of the improv-is-comedy-theater stereotypes is to stop using the shorthand term 'improv'. Done. I will no longer do this.

Honestly, I don't have as much formal 'improv' experience (comedy, on stage, etc.) as many people here (so your example doesn't quite apply to me). However, I do feel like I've been majoring in 'improvisation' my whole life.

Lots of food for thought in contrasting the Industrial Age (scripted) and Networked Age (Improvisation). So many additional dimensions come to mind, many of which parallel my own niche of reminding people of the darker side of technology (techno-centric is often script-centric - though if we add your 'networked' aspect, other voices come into the system and the IT can become a WE who improvises).

BTW, I tried to buy your book on amazon and got "Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock." Can I get it elsewhere?

Cheers,
Leif

[Leif Hansen]

Thanks Remy. I defiantely have a LOT of thinking to do as to what my UPS is. And I too personally enjoy the focus you mentioned - working with professionals who are interesting in the self-developmental aspects of improvisation. Yet yet yet...

[denzil meyers]

As a 20+ year ad agency consultant, I will support Melissa's assertion and reasons behind Expert/niche vs. Generalist...

also, no one says you must only work in 1 niche at a time. Niche's are based on a community or cohort to serve, with needs. I can have niche's (and develop different businesses, websites, etc.) for coaching to physicians and for golfers. As long as I market myself with the doctors as a specialist in their field, who knows where else I might be an "expert".

there IS a difference between a niche based on people (e.g. physicians) and one based on skills or expertise (e.g. financial planning).

all this will have an impact on your out-going message strategy... if you don't know which of 2 services your audience will care more about... perhaps you need to find out more about your prospective customers?

personally, my brand is confused... and I like it that way. really. somehow its important to me to represent myself across a wide diversity of services, whether it confuses my customers or not.