However, technology and social evolutions are blowing up traditional segmentation: markets are splitting and splitting again into more well-defined new markets. Traditionally, we’d call the splintered markets niches, but the word “niche” implies small, and that’s hardly the case.

The most obvious example is in mainstream media. Television, once dominated by a few major networks, is now thousands of channels, broken into narrower focus, giving us seemingly infinite choices. Most of us have instant access to food channels, sports channels, travel, buying and remodeling houses, lots of choices with always more choices coming. What used to be sports provided by three networks in the U.S. are now specialty channels for pro football, college football, golf, tennis, fishing, and so on. And television broadcasts once picked up by antennae are now delivered as that plus cable, Internet, tablets, and mobile.

This new landscape offers your business the benefits of strategically defining a position that ropes off a set of specific target market and business offerings to enhance the business-customer relationship. The phrase “target marketing” has been around about forever, but it means more now than ever before. What were once narrow niches are rapidly becoming interesting opportunities.