Chicken Soup for Every Person on the Face of the Planet
Posted May 20, 08:41 pm in business, business models, marketing, postmodernism
A couple of weeks ago, I was at a friend’s house as he was moving, and noticed an interesting book on his table. It was called “Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul.” I’ve never read one of these books, but I’ve noticed that this Chicken Soup franchise has proliferated to an extent that few other product lines (well, short of Wu-Tang) have. I have seen about 500 variations within this book series, including such unlikely and far-fetched titles as “Chicken Soup for the Ocean Lover’s Soul,” “Chicken Soup for Children with Special Needs,” and even a line extension of pet food called “Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover’s Soul Light Cat Formula (18-lb bag).” These are not jokes; these are real and are available on Amazon.com.
Usually marketing experts divide the market into two spheres: niche and mainstream. If you choose to take your product to the niche market, you can expect a small following who will pay more for your product. If you go mainstream, you can expect larger sales, but will need to reduce your product price in order to generate that greater sales volume.
This Chicken Soup franchise has, perhaps inadvertently, done something pretty remarkable from a business and marketing perspective— though almost certainly not from an aesthetic or artistic perspective. They have captured both the mainstream and the niche markets with their products. And not only some niches; they’ve apparently captured every niche market you can possibly fathom, from fishermen, to NASCAR viewers, to horse lovers, to prisoners (a more complete list can be seen here). I’m sure that eventually, this franchise will expand into more controversial areas, so we can look forward to great titles like “Chicken Soup for the Transvestite’s Soul,” “Chicken Soup for the Couch Potato’s Soul,” and Chicken Soup for the Deadbeat Dad’s Soul.” I can’t wait.