Have you ever heard of the "long tail"?
The long tail is a concept that was introduced back in 2004 by Chris Anderson, who argued that the future of entertainment, and by extension, all business, lies in developing millions of niche markets rather than just a handful of mega-markets. By focusing on capturing the revenues that might otherwise be lost in these millions of niche markets, businesses - and especially Internet-based businesses - can realize larger profits than they could by focusing on selling just a handful of products - the same products sold in large numbers by their competition.
We're going to really put that concept to the test today, because as part of a major shift away from markets and politics and toward really obscure and unexplored topics, as we're going out on the long tail after the consumers of bird perches! 
It just so happens that there's a math equation that can help bird owners determine the right size of a perch for their pet birds, which can help them avoid foot-related health issues and their costs:
Larry Nemetz, DVM, an avian-only vet in Southern California, once assumed that all birds within the same species would naturally have the same-sized feet — until he noticed another pattern emerging. "I started seeing a lot of soreness and arthritis in my patients, and wondered what was going on."
Two months of data collection later, he compared results on a spreadsheet and saw the truth — every patient he saw, even ones of the same bird species, had different-sized feet. That meant they all had specific perching needs. Were they on the wrong-sized perch?
That got him thinking further. "How could we come up with a guideline for perch sizes if species alone couldn't tell us anything?" Nemetz, it turns out, was in agreement with other avian experts: A bird's foot should wrap 75 percent around a perch for optimal comfort.
"We're looking for the best, long-term perching figure for pet birds. This may differ from how wild parrots roost, but for our purposes a 65- to 75-percent wraparound figure is ideal." This factors in elements such as secure gripping and foot stress.
So here's the potential long tail opportunity for us. Bird owners who care about their birds will be out seeking to improve their comfort and health by obtaining the right-sized perch for their pets. They might come across the same Bird Channel article in their internet searches as we did in seeking out a wildly obscure topic to take on.
That same search then should turn up the tool we're featuring in this post, which makes it easy to find out what size perches they should buy for their birds. All they would need to do is to enter the indicated information below, and our tool will return the results they need:
We'll next point to Amazon's section on bird perches so the more serious shopping for a particular-sized perch can get underway.
So will our long tail marketing strategy really work? The only way to find out if it really does is for bird owners to buy correctly sized bird perches for their birds through the links on our site! Go for it bird people!...
Image Credit: Avianweb
Previously on Political Calculations
Labels: none really, satire, tool
Welcome to the blogosphere's toolchest! Here, unlike other blogs dedicated to analyzing current events, we create easy-to-use, simple tools to do the math related to them so you can get in on the action too! If you would like to learn more about these tools, or if you would like to contribute ideas to develop for this blog, please e-mail us at:
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