Niching a dietary supplement brand in a crowded market

Niching a dietary supplement brand may sound crazy to some people.

The initial response we hear often is why should I niche down when my supplement can be taken, and should be taken by everyone?

After all, everyone needs Vitamin C and D, right?

Sure, from a health perspective, we should all take a good immunity supplement.

But from a marketing perspective niching a dietary supplement brand is key to success in today’s overcrowded marketplace.

What many health supplement entrepreneurs don’t realize is that niching down actually opens up the market because they are no longer competing against everyone.

Many times niching down means you have no competition at all if you get the niche right.

The best niches are at the intersection of both a horizontal and a vertical.

The horizontal is the WHAT.

What do you sell?

The vertical is the WHO.

Who is it for?

This is where most start-up supplement brands get tripped up. They want to sell to everyone.

But the dietary supplement industry is so crowded that picking a who is challenging unless you get creative.

Enter The Ghost Lifestyle Brand

The supplement company Ghost is fairly new to the market. They’ve only been around since 2016, only about 4 years at the time of this article.

The founders are Ryan Hughes, a former IFBB Pro turned CMO along with Dan Lourenco, the mastermind behind Ghost’s brand licensing product innovation and a fan of the Saturday morning cartoons and sugar-loaded cereals we all grew up with.

When they first launched they focused on just 2 products.

A Pre-Workout Mix, called Legend, and an Amino Acid Mix.

Now, however, they have several product lines.

Including a brain-boosting nootropic and natural energy line and more.

Yet, they have a very clear niche.

Using the intersection of the horizontal and vertical niche framework, it looks like this.

What they sell is workout supplements. (That’s the horizontal. It’s very broad.)

Who they sell it to are gamers and skateboarders. (That’s the vertical. A very narrow and under-served market.)

Let’s look at one specific product to see how it amplified the crosshairs of their niche even further.

One of their products is Whey protein powder. Again, this is the “what” part of the niche.

The who, that Ghost has chosen to niche down and sell to, is what sets them apart from other supplement brands.

Most supplement brands selling protein focus on the benefits of the type of protein.

For example, Whey protein, Pea protein, etc.

Instead, Ghost takes a lifestyle approach to selling protein. Which ties directly into their target customer avatar.

Their avatar isn’t everyone who goes to a gym. It’s for a specific select subgroup.

Skateboarders and gamers.

That’s a unique avatar that is largely under-served in the fitness marketplace.

Your Avatar Choice Sets The Strategy For Niching a Dietary Supplement Brand

The decision to build a supplement brand for skaters and gamers makes it infinitely easier to compete in such a crowded marketplace.

Because your supplement brand can then craft everything around serving that market segment.

A market segment that’s underserved like this is a blue ocean of opportunity.

One way Ghost does that is through offering unique flavors.

Flavors that are part of the skater and gaming culture.

With licensed flavors like:

Chips Ahoy
Nutter Butter

And pre-workout flavors in their Legend line specifically for gamers like:

Sour Patch Kids
Swedish Fish (the red ones, which are in fact the best ones)
Warheads Sour Green Apple

In addition to:

Welch’s Grape
SONIC Chery Limeade
BUBBLICIOUS Strawberry Splash
WARHEADS Sour Watermelon

These candy and cookie flavors are at the dead center of the bullseye for gamers and skaters who go to the gym.

Brands like Swedish Fish and SONIC are already part of their avatar’s lifestyle outside of the gym. Or they once were for those nostalgic gamers who grew up with Saturday morning cartoons, Atari, and Nintendo.

Ghost is simply tapping into the existing culture of their avatar.

Similar to the way BulletProof did with butter in coffee to build a movement.

The Ghost lifestyle is further amplified by a line of gear and apparel. This extends the niche outside of the gym to that of being a proud user of the supplements, while a prominent “fam” tab on the site showcases a gallery of influencers who have endorsed Ghost.

The endorsers they use also fit squarely into their niche.

For example, Lazyemily, is a full-time streamer on Twitch. And Madison, aka Ricebowll, who is a full-time online fitness/nutrition coach and Twitch streamer. And many more like her promote the brand through influencer marketing.