Oh baby! Be ready when new markets arise

In one corner, a sick toddler – whining, fussing and producing one dirty diaper after another.

In the other corner, a professional athlete — stout, ripped and massive, the poster boy for machismo.

In the diverse world of target marketing, they represent two huge and distinctive  groups of prospects, requiring product marketing campaigns that are as different as night and day.

The product? Pedialyte — an over-the-counter liquid with a teddy bear on its label. Sold alongside diapers in drugstores, it is used to rehydrate toddlers experiencing diarhhea.

It also contains elecrolytes such as sodium, potassium and glucose — the same basic ingredients found in most sports drinks.

Serious athletes comprise a growing market for Pedialyte, a trend that began with long-distance runners in the 1980s. Now it’s all the rage in the National Hockey League; several NHL teams include Pedialyte on the beverage cart during team flights. And the National Football League added Pedialyte to its roster of products in 2001 after the heat-related death of 370-pound lineman Korey Stringer.

The marketing lesson? You never know for sure what new markets your product or service might find. But it sure is a welcome challenge when they crop up. So always be ready to diversify. Segmentation, baby! Who ever would have predicted Pedialyte going head-to-head with Gatorade? That’s a huge market to tap. At the same time, Pedialyte marketers must feel like a bunch of kids in a candy store.