02/17/2005 03:30:00 AM 
The temptation to get bigger is everywhere, it's especially prominent in cable television, where brands that start with a niche idea, find that they have trouble selling quality and focus to advertisers, so they go broad and try to sell quantity. You see it with venture capital companies, who are so desperate for fledgling ideas to grow and become the next big thing, that they often ruin the brand by over-expansion. Consumer goods companies are striving to get bigger, as they bulk up to face Wal-Mart.
Sometimes big isn't that great and staying small protects the brand for the longer term. Apple is the obvious poster child in this category, a brand with a cult-like following and 4% market share, BMW too can also be mentioned in the same breath.
Then there are the small brands that are endemic to cultures and derive their energy and success from their intimate understanding of that culture.
Business Week recently wrote about how the big soda companies are being challenged by niche energy drink brands like "Crunk Juice". The energy drink brand for the urban market from rapper Lil John, who's venture is being bankrolled by Grey Goose's creator, Sydney Frank.
You can find other strong niche brands, anywhere that there is a strong culture to support them, extreme sports and urban culture are two examples that can support many niche brands.
Brands from these worlds often start off as the passionate dream of one or two individuals, achieve success and then face a difficult decision do they become big and risk damaging their brand or stay small. Fubu making bed-sheets is the perfect example of a brand that sold out its niche in order to claim the big prize, but in so doing, ended up corrupting the brand.
With the Internet, niche brands operating outside of retail, now have the opportunity to connect with large audiences in a way that they couldn't before. They don't have to rely on large distribution partners to get scale. They also don't need to worry too much about advertising expense as the Internet provides a cost effective way of reaching their audience. There's also micro-media like free magazines, in the metro and urban markets, that allow brands to affordably connect with their core cultures.
Small brands can even open there own retail operation or find retailers who share audience and sensibility.
Whole Foods has been a strong supporter of the smaller organic brands like Muir Glen and Horizon.
Target, who although big, has supported a number of smaller innovative brands like Method.
Urban Outfitters who've helped put Asics, the comparatively small Japanese shoe company, on the map.
So although corporate America may be obsessed with giants becoming even larger, trends suggest that we are going to see even more powerful smaller niche brands that wlll be allowed to thrive because of the proliferation of micro-niches.
These brands will benefit from lower costs of production (soon anyone with a computer will be able to get something made in China), the increasing ability to tailor products to meet personal tastes, opportunities for alternative distribution and micro media vehicles. They will be piloted by " brand savvy" entrepreneurs who are more innovative, imaginative and nimbler than their competitors at the lumbering giants of megacorp.
However, the biggest driver of all will be the consumer, who in an age of rampant individuality, will be looking for brands that reflect "them". In the future, consumers will not need to find these brands, the brands will seek them out, through a combination of word of mouth and micro-targeted "me media" (think Tivo and Google ads on steroids).
Welcome to branding's Long Tail.
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