Target-Market Aperture Expansion
Redefine who can become a customer before competing harder for existing buyers.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 98%
The aperture-expansion framework challenges a market definition based only on people who already buy the category. Teams identify people with relevant interest, intent, and purchasing ability who have not participated because the category feels inaccessible or unfamiliar. That wider definition then propagates through product design, brand language, partnerships, public relations, performance marketing, onboarding, and lifecycle communication. Instead of optimizing exclusively for a small established segment, the company removes barriers preventing adjacent demand from becoming active demand. The framework is not an instruction to target everyone; the expanded audience must still possess meaningful interest. Its strategic output is a larger but coherent market built around plausible future customers.
Origin
At Artsy, Taylor shifted the target from experienced collectors toward anyone with interest and intent to buy art, arguing that everyday prospective collectors represented a much larger opportunity.
Core principles
- 01Current category participation does not define total demand.
- 02Interested outsiders may be more valuable than entrenched incumbents.
- 03A broader audience definition changes the whole operating strategy.
- 04Category growth can outperform fighting for existing share.
How to run it
- 1
Define the Existing Aperture
Document who the company currently treats as a legitimate customer and which inherited assumptions constrain that definition.
Pro tip Look for definitions based on status, history, or insider credentials.
Watch out Do not assume current buyers represent everyone with demand.
- 2
Locate Adjacent Intent
Find people who are interested in the category and able to participate but have not found a comfortable path into it.
Pro tip Use interviews, search behavior, and engagement signals to distinguish intent from casual awareness.
Watch out Expanding to people with no interest produces an incoherent mass market.
- 3
Quantify the Opportunity
Compare the size and economics of the adjacent audience with the established segment.
Pro tip Include the cost of overcoming category barriers, not merely audience size.
Watch out A large audience is irrelevant if the company cannot serve it profitably.
- 4
Propagate the New Definition
Update channel selection, placement, copy, partnerships, product experience, onboarding, and curation around the expanded audience.
Pro tip Treat the audience change as a company strategy, not an isolated campaign.
Watch out Old product assumptions can quietly negate broader positioning.
- 5
Provide Entry Points
Offer understandable pathways and suitable price or commitment levels for newly included customers.
Pro tip Show the breadth of the offering without hiding premium options.
Watch out Do not imply accessibility while presenting only elite inventory.
In the wild
Artsy moved beyond an experienced-collector focus and addressed people who wanted to collect art but did not know how or where to begin. Its marketplace ranged from accessible works to multimillion-dollar pieces.
→ The company opened a larger market without abandoning established collectors.
An investment platform stops defining its market as active traders and builds education, fractional entry points, and beginner onboarding for salaried people already interested in long-term investing.
→ Latent interest becomes a new cohort of participating customers.
Common mistakes
Targeting Everybody
Market expansion should focus on people with credible interest and intent, not audiences entirely disconnected from the category.
Changing Only the Persona Slide
A wider audience definition has little effect unless product, channels, messaging, and onboarding change with it.
Ignoring Entry Economics
The expanded segment must have a viable way to participate at an appropriate price or commitment level.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for businesses in niche, luxury, specialist, or emerging categories with many interested nonparticipants.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when supply is fixed, serving additional segments would violate the mission, or new customers cannot be supported economically.
From the transcript
“Our strategy now is not the experienced collector, but it's anyone with intent and interest to buy art.”
“The bigger opportunity are the everyday people that have the funds to actually buy art and to also introduce that art collecting is for everybody”
“I'm not talking about trying to capture people who are not interested in art at all.”
From the episode
Rethinking your Market with Everette Taylor (CMO of Artsy)
Everette Taylor