Community News C Rochester Makes Livability List R ochester has been named one of the 2021 Top 100 Best Places to Live by Livability.com, outpacing more than 1,000 cities with populations between 20,000 and 1 million in this data-driven ranking. “This year’s list is a testament to loving where you live, in a time where more of us than ever can live anywhere we want,” says Cara Sanders, Livability. com managing editor. “These past two years have shown us how important it is that the places we live meet our needs and offer up affordability, opportunity and plenty of amenities. If we can work from anywhere, then these 100 cities are places you would want to live and make remote workers’ needs a top priority.” The 2021 rankings were guided by an exclusive remote working study conducted by Livability.com in partnership with Ipsos. More than 1,000 adults aged 18 and up from across the country were surveyed to determine which livability characteristics they value in their future communities. Respondents were asked if they could work from anywhere, which factors would be most heavily considered when choosing to relocate and how housing needs and priorities have changed since the beginning of the pandemic. Since March 2020, more than 42% of the U.S. population has either moved or considered moving. Home to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN is a small but mighty city with a thriving downtown scene, tons of professional networking opportunities, and lots of family-friendly activities to keep little ones busy.
By Dean Swanson, volunteer Certified SCORE Mentor and former SCORE Chapter Chair, District Director, and Regional Vice President for the Northwest Region S everal requests for mentoring have come from small business CEOs that want help in bringing to market the unique product that they have developed, or they have a service that they want to bring to a limited target market. In this column, I will provide several suggestions that I have discussed with this type of CEO request. Successfully marketing a niche product or service requires a different set of strategies and tactics than a mass consumer product. The basic considerations are to carefully consider the needs of the customer, the current market, and how you’ll engage a small pool of potential buyers as you develop a marketing plan. Marketing a niche product means that you are not selling to everyone. Having a narrow pool of potential customers comes with challenges and ultimately means more work on your part to find those people who fall within your niche. However, marketing a niche product also has advantages, once you identify your customers. Successfully marketing a niche product starts with an in-depth understanding of your potential customer. The strategies and tactics put in place to market a mass consumer product – something almost anyone can use - are going to be much different than the ones you’d use to market your niche product. When you are targeting a small pool of buyers, you need to understand who is most likely to buy your product and how your product can tap directly into their needs. For more entrepreneurial articles, visit SCORE’s website: https://bit.ly/3lC7k6d Marketing Your Niche Product
Advantage Magazine | 17
November 2021
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