A few months ago, I posted a link to a book called Niche, by James Harkin. I’d noticed the book because it includes a chapter about Moleskine… and then the book’s author noticed my post and kindly offered to send me a copy to review!

With the subtitle “Why the Market No Longer Favours the Mainstream,” the book poses the argument that companies can no longer try to be all things to all people, and that success will be found by defining one’s niche and focusing on it, as well as learning how to exploit the enthusiasm of a niche audience. The author uses a number of companies as examples of success and failure, though I thought they were sometimes used a bit too self-reinforcingly– the now-defunct Woolworth’s is cited as an example of the irrelevance and failure of the all-purpose general store, but the author talks briefly about Wal-Mart without really explaining how their decidedly un-niche-y, very mainstream success fits into his thesis. Woolworth’s wasn’t killed by specialist boutiques, it was killed by suburban stores like Wal-Mart doing a bigger, better job of offering something for everyone and drawing shoppers away from “Main Street” downtown shopping areas.

But Harkin gives a very compelling example in his discussion of the Gap, whose sales have declined as they’ve struggled to figure out who their target customers are, vs. the “if you’re over 30, stay away” approach of Abercrombie & Fitch. Starbucks is another interesting example– they got their start by targeting the niche of coffee snobs vs. the mainstream Maxwell House drinkers, but now that they’ve become a mainstream coffee behemoth, they’ve had some struggles with their identity and profitability, though I think they’d still be considered a success by any measure. I think my issue here is that the subtitle of the book suggests that mainstream= loser and niche=winner, which is misleading (and the content of the book is certainly more nuanced). Moleskine is certainly a fantastic example of a niche success, but that doesn’t mean that Mead is a mainstream failure. Same with Apple vs. Windows (and I have to note that although Apple is mentioned on the cover, the coverage of the company consists of one brief mention 3 pages away from the end of the book).

Let’s get away from the question of winners vs. losers: the book does give a lot of great ideas and inspiration for how niche-oriented businesses can succeed. The Moleskine part of the book comes in a chapter about people “sorting themselves into flocks.” Moleskine is the perfect example of envisioning a product that would appeal to a certain type of person– a type that can’t be linked to any particular demographic group, but rather to a shared mindset. Instead of marketing a generic notebook for generic users, Moleskine linked their product to a rather amorphous idea of art, travel and European culture– and then they let their users run with it. The product itself hit a sweet spot in terms of size, aesthetics, quality and paper options, and the “history” and “identity” behind the brand clicked with how a certain kind of people wanted to define themselves as creative, cosmopolitan, and “different.” The internet then allowed the fans to build communities like the Moleskinerie blog and Flickr groups (and the blog you are now reading). Moleskine subtly helped these grow and flourish but the “fans-speaking-to-fans” aspect made it feel like a club people wanted to join. (What’s not covered in the book is that as Moleskine has grown as a company, they’ve gotten more corporate about managing their brand, with draconian policies on using the trademarked Moleskine name on fan websites, and by taking over the Moleskinerie blog and arguably ruining it in the process.)

And as for the notebooks themselves, here’s my favorite quote from the book:

In [1996], Modo & Modo trademarked their brand as Moleskine (with a capital ‘M’) and located a manufacturer located in China capable of assembling notebooks to their detailed design specification. The first Moleskine notebooks arrived from China to be hand-finished in Milan in 1997: that year Modo & Modo sold five thousand of them to their Italian distributors, and the following year it shifted thirty thousand.

There you have it, in case there was any doubt that Moleskine notebooks were ALWAYS made in China. Maria Sebregondi and Francesco Franceschi of Moleskine were interviewed for Harkin’s book, so this is pretty much from the horse’s mouth. It’s fascinating to me that the user community they’ve cultivated is so passionate about the product and invested it its mythology that many of them are convinced that Moleskines used to be made in Europe, and “aren’t as good any more now that they’re made in China.” And there’s Harkin’s message again– as Moleskine approaches more “mainstream” status selling tens of millions of notebooks a year, they can’t control their production quality quite as closely, their core audience may become disillusioned, and the marketing magic might begin to fade. Moleskine already seems like a mainstream Goliath when you look at upstart challengers like Field Notes or Doane Paper who are carving out their own even smaller niche.

There’s lots more food for thought in this book, with examples from all sorts of industries. It’s an entertaining read, and I found myself scribbling lots of notes in the margins. Though it was published in the UK, most of the companies cited are American (and global), so it’s very relevant for anyone with an interest in business and marketing. If you’re not in the UK, Amazon is probably your best bet for finding a copy.