Untapped Niches and the Mile High Club
March 10th, 2008 by Michael Gray in Random ThoughtsIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Read my top posts or learn more about Michael Gray. Want more frequent updates follow me on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
On my flight to the SMX Search Marketing Conference the stewardess made this announcement over the PA system …
“Do we have any newlyweds, married couples or lovers on board … (some passengers raise hands) I’d like to remind you that the bathrooms are single occupancy rooms, so please wait till you land and get a hotel room, thanks …”
Maybe a tad unprofessional, but considering I don’t remember seeing any children on board, it was all in good fun.
However tonight I came across a story about a mile high tower being built somewhere and it triggered a thought. Why doesn’t someone run a private jet service that caters exclusively to people who want that James Bond Mile High Club experience. How hard would it be to convert a small plane to have an isolated bedroom chamber?
There would be almost no startup advertising costs, really after a few well placed press releases the concept would absolutely go viral. From a pilot and cabin steward point of view passengers who are otherwise occupied aren’t going to be ringing the bell every 5 minutes looking for bag of honey roasted nuts are they?
What’s the take-away from this post, think about the markets other people shun or stay away from, find creative ways to fill a service people want that no one else is offering. When you have niche where the number of people who are willing to compete is minimal you can command higher prices and profits.
(I so think I’m going to regret publishing this post one day)
Sphere It
March 10th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Hmm… It’s actually quite affordable… http://milehighatlanta.com/
March 10th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
kid disco » heh pretty funny
I think there’s a problem with the marketing there though, because it’s low cost people won’t attach value to it, sort of the no-tell-motel with wings. You want to pitch it as a luxury once in a lifetime experience. Beautifully appointed and detailed cabin, pair it with limo service, roses, the whole enchilada
March 11th, 2008 at 7:36 am
My brother in law did that, the truth of the matter was that there wasn’t enough money to be made to make it worthwhile.
March 11th, 2008 at 9:29 am
There is a service as kid disco points out. If you don’t like the motel quality, charter a flight.
But honestly, the whole point is that you’re doing something you’re not suppose to be doing and that you might get caught. It’s preferably with someone 1) you don’t know, who’s 2) hot and 3) you just met on the plane. Ideally that person is a stewardess.
People who pay for a service to do it are just looking for a loop hole to “technically” join the club.
If you’re gonna do it, just do it.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:25 am
@tke - Did he identify and effectively market to the right clientèle? This might be the kind of thing that everyone (men) would like to do, but few would spend their own money on - like VIP boxes.
It might be a real cash cow if you targeted groups who could use other peoples money - congressmen, governors, televangelists, presidents for example - of course the amenities might need to have an option to include a companion. Maybe corporate lobbyists are the customers to target.
Gotta be creative.
March 11th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I did that recently…(start a business in a niche market - see link post link) and it took off big time. Still going strong from
February. It’s amazing when you start something that people haven’t seen before. I went from 0 to almost 100,000
visitors in the past three weeks. The sales have been damn good too.
Michael - I was going to send you some samples for the fun of it, but you keep your physical address stuff pretty private
— let me know (via email) if you want to send some as a prank to someone, my treat.
online
March 12th, 2008 at 3:35 am
There is, of course, “that creepy guy at Burningman” who goes round offering to let cute girls “get it on with their boyfriend” in the back of his little 4 seater Cessna… So long as he gets to watch…
big
March 12th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Singapore Airlines is already doing this…
http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/content/exp/new/suite/index.jsp
March 13th, 2008 at 2:28 am
That’s quite clever and seriously relevant. It’s not as common to be the people who start the next Google or Microsoft, more likely somebody says, “Hey, I love chocolate, and I love hot dogs…” and BOOM Chocodog is born.
Damn, I may even regret writing THAT. Better get a copyright on that bad boy asap.