NICHE NOUN (BUSINESS WORLD)

In business jargon, a position from which an entrepreneur is able to exploit a gap in the market; a profitable corner of the market. Etymology: A specialized figurative sense of niche (literally 'a recess'), similar to corner in its business sense. History and Usage: This sense of niche was first used by Frederik Barth in his book The Role of the Entrepreneur in Social Change in Northern Norway (1963). In the late seventies and eighties it gave rise to a number of compounds and derivatives, including niche advertising, niche analysis, niche business, and niche marketing (all referring to the exploitation of niches), niche player (a person who exploits a niche), nichemanship (the practice or technique of exploiting a niche), and the verb niche market. The only sensible strategy for non-bank financial institutions is nichemanship. Business Review Weekly 29 Aug. 1986, p. 56 At the very time when Campbell was niche marketing trendy vegetables in its bid to be the 'well-being company', it was embroiled in a messy farm labor dispute. Warren Belasco Appetite for Change (1989), p. 219 The pizza chains...plug valuable niches in the Retail Division between the Berni and other restaurants at one extreme and the pubs and pub-restaurants at the other. Intercity Apr. 1990, p. 17 But if you had a real niche fund, say a French authorised second section oil fund for instance, then you could raise interest from foreign investors who wanted into that niche. European Investor May 1990, p. 10 The areas of assistance available through the program include technology transfers, OEM agreements, distribution networks, market niche analysis for products and technologies, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions. UnixWorld Jan. 1991, p. 157