Niche Marketing On and Off the Internet | The Sandwich Generation
Never let it be said that all niche markets are chock full of competition. Or that “there are tons of other coaches already servicing that group, I couldn’t possibly…” (Insert sigh.)
Why not? One reason: because just as human evolution doesn’t ever stop, new niches are ripening all around us.
The Sandwich Generation, a subset of the good folk we know as Baby Boomers, is an excellent example, especially because they’re a niche defined by their major challenge or difficulty – the care of aging parents AND the care of dependent children.
Question: What opportunities do this group of people provide to forward-thinking coaches?
To stir the pot, check this out from the Province, Sunday January 14, 2007 page E7..
Workers now getting help for their Parents by Kevin Lubin
“Offering free or subsidized child-care services to staffers is something major Canadian employers have done for years. But five Calgary firms are opening a new facility designd to help employees balance work and family obligations by caring for their aging parents. [...]
Victoria Sopik, CEO of Kids and Company, national provider of employee childcare benefits is launching the new seniors’ daycare. [...]
We’ve had huge demand, she said. We could have launched with 30 companies instead of just five. It’s the first of its kind in Canada.”
Now here’s an interesting thing.
Search on Google for ‘Sandwich Generation’ and you’ll find over 2 million search results but no advertising…
Search on Yahoo Groups and you’ll find about a dozen groups, mostly very small, the biggest is 200 or so members…
Search on inventory.overture.com (no www in front) and ‘sandwich generation’ only yields 600 or so searches last month…
And yet, search on Amazon and over a dozen self-help books have been published to support this unique group.
Conclusion?
(1) This group of people don’t strongly identify with the words Sandwich Generation necessarily.
You might find them (among others) more easily on the internet through terms such as ‘adult daycare’ (45,000 plus searches) or ‘elderly care’ (7000ish searches) etc.
(2) These are early-ish days yet for this group of people on the internet. Or, they may never become a cohesive group that cavorts the world wide web.
BUT…with a little more research I would hazard to guess this is a viable market for specialist services for many sectors – food services, housing and accommodation, personal wellness, coaching, time management, personal organizers, etc.
Were I to be working with a business client interested in targetting this market, certainly the first place to access this type of person would be through traditional media NOT the internet.
My side point is this: I had someone ask me last week about which ‘internet marketing’ seminar they should attend this fall. You could just hear how hopeful and keen this person was to launch themselves into this world. It was sweet, really. 
I encouraged them to attend but only after making sure they had the bigger context – using the internet to build your business is like using the Yellow Pages to build your business. Of course you use both tools but neither is the only thing and the internet is no longer really even the ‘newest’ thing.
As much a proponent I am of Multiple Streams, nothing, no single strategy or business model, is the be all end all solution that fits for every business on the planet.
(Just because you are a hammer, doesn’t mean everything is a nail. And just because there is a great hammer nearby, doesn’t mean you become a nail.)
Sorry, but there is no magic pill, and taking a broad perspective, a long term perspective, and above all, thinking for yourself, is the only way to go in these persuasive times when there are so many ‘cool things to do’ and ‘shiny toys being waved about.’
What do you think?
I think you’re right about the Sandwich Generation not being a cohesive group – although there are a number of bloggers who focus on the challenges of caring for aging parents and growing children. But I believe that, just as the Baby Boomers are coming in to their own about aging, the Sandwich Generation will gradually develop a collective voice.
My business partner, Carol McGowan RNC, and I have worked as nurses in the field of aging for over 30 years. Because of the needs we observed through our work, we developed a business focusing on caregivers, The Caregiver Cottage. Our focus is coaching caregivers and providing information to the baby boomers (sandwich gereration) who are caring for aging parents. We have witnessed time after time that decisions regarding elder care happen when there is a crisis. We are promoting planning for elder care to facilitate choices. Caregiving can be isolating and the activities of life for the sandwich generation is such that the adult child slowly moves into caregiving or due to a crisis is thrust into caregiving. This is a difficult group to reach and the needs for guidance through the caregiving process is great.