Takeaways for Entrepreneurs
Pinterest remains a study in how best to attack heavyweight competitors in an established and crowded market, while minimizing risk. By doing extensive market analysis before rolling out the product, the folks behind Pinterest were able to effectively identify the potential in the 18-35 female market as a place where they could steal page clickers from Facebook most effectively. The company, as any prudent entrepreneur should, then designed its user interface and media platform in response to this target market.
What did this do? Two things, incredibly effectively. First, Pinterest was able to ensure it would physically and psychologically appeal to the market it was geared for, since the entire interface was designed specifically with those users in mind. Secondly, Pinterest was able to limit the threat from companies like Facebook, who while providing a similar platform, can’t offer the specific features that a niche site like Pinterest can offer to its users.
What we have left is a modern success story in a social media world full of abject failures and squandered investments. With a niche market firmly in its grasp, newfound brand trust and word-of-mouth among its dedicated users, and a business model that ensures long-term competitiveness and viability against even its most formidable competitors, Pinterest seems destined for the kind of success we entrepreneurs can only dream of achieving; that is, unless we take these lessons and use them to bring our businesses to the type of fruition that Pinterest has displayed for us.