The Connection Between Yellow Watermelon and Marketing! (Part One)

Have you ever seen yellow watermelon before? Yes, I mean the one you’re reading about now! Three years ago, while buying some items at a market, I saw a yellow watermelon and realized that watermelon doesn’t only come in red. I liked the idea a lot and thought, why not try it? So, I bought a yellow watermelon.

After trying it, I discovered another fact: the watermelon is not only yellow but also seedless!

So, what does all this have to do with marketing and business?

In 2004, a new concept in marketing was introduced by a person named Chris Anderson. Anderson wrote an article about the "Long Tail" idea, and later expanded it into a full book in 2006. This book is now one of the best-selling marketing books on Amazon. Its Arabic title is: “Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More” [The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More].

The idea of Long Tail marketing is simple: it’s possible to sell less-known products or services—those not sold in large quantities or with low demand—to achieve very good profits, often surpassing the profits of the most popular best-selling products.

As shown in the chart above, the red part is the “head,” representing popular products. The orange part is the “tail,” representing niche and less-known products. The vertical axis shows product popularity, and the horizontal axis represents the products. The amazing thing is that if you take the orange tail and raise it to compare with the red head (as seen at the far left of the image), you’ll find that the tail is much larger than the head.

Why is that?

There are several reasons:

• These products usually target a few people, or more accurately, niche markets. Competition in these markets is almost nonexistent, so profits are good, and customer purchase rates are faster and better.

• Marketing and distribution costs are usually lower, as companies rarely advertise these products directly.

Examples:

• Have you ever seen a flyer from a supermarket promoting yellow watermelon like the one in the image above? Most likely not, because customers will only pass by the product if they are interested in imported or less-common fruits in Egypt.

• Another example: the profitability of niche books on Amazon often surpasses that of popular books, because it’s harder for buyers to find these specialized books elsewhere, so they purchase them regardless of price. In contrast, buyers search for the best deal for popular books.

• A third example: a large part of Google’s revenue comes from small advertisers, not big companies.

In the second part of this article, we will explain the applications of the Long Tail theory and how you can use it in your business.

This article was originally published on the Facebook page Thoughts on Business by Taher Abdel-Hameed.