Positioning magic at the top end of the market

On Saturday I enjoyed an evening of very intimate magic—a showcase of modern conjuring—by Steve Cohen, the "Millionaire’s Magician".

Steve's story is a fascinating example of personal branding success with exclusivity as a market position.

Steve doesn't advertise his Chamber Magic shows. He doesn't sell his services. It's his positioning plus word of mouth (and word of mouse) that gets him attention and selling out his shows many months in advance.

He performs on weekends in a beautiful, private suite in The Waldorf Towers. His guests arrive in cocktail attire making the performance feel like a trip back in time. (See the video below for a taste of the show).

To create the show and his market positioning, Steve worked with positioning expert Mark Levy (Disclosure: I have worked with Mark on several projects).

Mark was perfect because he not only is a positioning guru, but also a magician (he has co-written Magic for Dummies and the positioning and communications book How to Persuade People who don’t want to be Persuaded). Mark and Steve talked over the course of a month about how to develop a unique position in the crowded market for magicians.

Amazingly, no magic performer was in the exclusive space. Other performers were billing themselves as the funniest, or the edgiest, or the flashiest, or the coolest. Or adept at performing at trade shows, or at parties, or for children, or at functions, or they were the best at a specific kind of magic. But no one was focusing on the ultra high end.

With the new positioning, Steve Cohen was able to raise his private fees by 2,000% (yes, you read that right - he raised his fees two thousand percent) and he has been hired to perform at events for people such as Martha Stewart, Michael Bloomberg, the Saudi royal family, and Warren Buffet.

Of course, not everyone can be exclusive. The vast majority of magicians perform at children's birthday parties and county fairs.

How about you? Does the top end of the market appeal to you? Is it a position you can own?

More about Chamber Magic and Steve Cohen
Direct link to the video of Steve performing

Comments

[Mike Lefebvre, The Uncommon Agent]

An inspirational post for a real estate agent who recently left a large national behemoth to affiliate with a Sotheby's International Real Estate office...

And less than one year into it, is seeing first hand the power of positioning for the high-end!

[Rachel Bryant]

What a great story of innovation and positioning. But the key - Cohen LOVES what he does and his passion translates to his audience.

[John Sherry]

It's all about niche. Magic isn't a mainstream everyday service and he's successfully made a niche even of that. By specialising he's been viewed as of higher value. The real magic is how this has spread and worked. Bravo!!

[Tony Faustino]

Mr. Cohen’s successful niche positioning is a classic success story demonstrating the power of The Long Tail (or in this case, The Luxury Long Tail as evidenced by Mr. Cohen’s clientele and fees).

The New York Times recently ran an article declaring that The Long Tail of Marketing is Dead: http://bit.ly/S1S6Q. Quite frankly, I couldn’t disagree more with the author of that NYT article. This profile on Mr. Cohen and a recent Forbes Magazine Special Report on successful high-end, niche, positioning (http://bit.ly/3m2ah) clearly illustrate that sound execution of a targeted niche or “long tail” strategy can still yield winning results in a recessionary economy.

Congratulations to Mr. Cohen and Long Live The Long Tail!

[Engago team]

Madoff was exclusive too. It was hard to become a customer/investor with Madoff.

[The Marketing Intern]

It amazes me how often we can gather inspiration from the leaders of industries we never even knew existed. Someone once said that about 80% of posturing is getting the right people to "buy it." The other 20% is convincing everyone else. If you had told me yesterday that even a lowly parlor magician can attract celebrity millionaire clientele, I wouldn't have bought it. Today? Well, I'm convinced.

The only problem here is boiling the story down to a maxim. One can't very well say, "If a magician can do it, so can I," can one?

[David Meerman Scott]

@Marketing Intern -- That's the point. YES. All the stories I write about in my books and this blog are to show my readers that they can do it too.

And I am proof too: Ten years ago I was a working stiff at a big company. I told my wife I wanted to become an author and get paid to speak for a living. I'm living my dream.

So can you...