iPhones, airports and finding niche markets…

So as I was rushing out the door on my trip to Florida last week – and I don’t know how I did this – but I left my iPhone at home.

Yes, my beloved iPhone that I carry around with me everywhere.

The one I had loaded up the night before with a bunch of audios and other good stuff so that I could have something to do on the long plane ride.

Yeah, I left it at home…

And I didn’t even realize it until I got out of the car and checked my pockets…and it was gone!

In my rush off to the airport in the morning, I was out of my normal routine and had left my iPhone at home on the bathroom counter of all places.

Luckily, my wife had her cell phone and gave it for me to use over the weekend.

And so, my lovely wife dropped my off for me to catch my plane, and she went home to find my phone and see if she could overnight it to my hotel in Florida. $25 she said, and she had to send it before 11:00 am to get to me in time- I told her not to worry about it and this it wasn’t worth overnighting to me for the weekend. After all, I was mostly wanting to use it for the plane ride anyways…

So I get on my plane, and went to turn off her phone and realized that her phone had next to nothing for batery life. “No problem” I said to myself – I’ll see if I can pick up a replacement charger for the phone when I land. After all, how much are cell phone chargers anyways, like 5 bucks? No problem.

I forgot that I was trying to buy something in an airport. (If any of you have heard Jerry Seinfeld’s airport comedy skit, you can play that right now and know what I’m talking about…)

So, I had a few minutes before I had to catch my connector flight, and it took me looking at like 3 or 4 store in the airport before I found one that had the charger that I needed. But finally, I found it. Price tag you might ask?

$25.

I paid it…sure…even though by now I really could have overnighted my iPhone to me in Florida for the same price tag.

So why am I telling you this story you are probably asking yourself?

Let me tell you the marketing lesson behind my little unfortunate circumstance:

It is easy to sell to a market who are desperate for what you have to offer them…and you can charge outrageous prices!!

Perfect example- the airport. They can charge whatever they want, and they don’t have a great selection. Jerry Seinfeld jokes – “‘Tuna fish sandwhich? $10. Tuna is very rare here’…What…do they think they are they’re own country or something?!?”…

I was desperate – I left my phone at home, my replacement phone had no batteries, and I was stuck in an airport. I figured it would probably cost me more to take a cab to a walmart to buy a cheap charger, than to just bite the bullet in the airport store.

So, the question is really – how do you find a hungry market who are desperate to buy what you have to offer them you might ask yourself?

You just need to look around – there are hundreds of different markets and niches out there that solve people’s problems, but some problems are easier to find answers for, and some are easier to solve.

Now I have been doing my own research and testing lately looking for niche markets that are hungry for the solutions that I can provide them, and I’ll be sharing that process with you in the coming weeks, so stay tuned…

Post your comments here in the meantime and let me know what you think, and what’s working for you.

And until next time - best of luck with your efforts online…and try not to make the dumb mistake I made at the airport.

Tagged as: airport, iPhone, jerry seinfeld, keyword research, niche markets