Preference isolation implies that preferences and tastes of a few people are inconsistent with the majority of people in the neighborhood. As a result, local stores, restaurants, and merchants are not motivated to offer items to the isolated consumer. To illustrate, in one particular town most people wear blue ties, however one person wears a Bow tie. Consider the problem faced by the manufacturer and the seller of ties if there is a cost associated with producing more variety, and typically there is such a cost. The manager of the factory is aware that most people want blue ties, and if only one person wants a Bow tie, they will not produce any Bow ties. Also known as the preference minority, the person seeking the Bow tie will not be successful in obtaining one. Concept based on a study by Jeonghye Choi and David R. Bell and presented in the Journal of Marketing Vol. XLVIII (August 2011), 670–682
Another is Vernors soda, a ginger flavored soft drink and the oldest surviving ginger ale brand in the United States. “For most of its history, Vernors was a regional product. Vernors was not mass distributed nationally until the 1968s, when United Brands, A&W and Cadbury expanded it to a 33-state area. Even after expansion, Michigan accounts for 80% of Vernors sales. It is also very popular in Florida, which has large numbers of retired or relocated former Michigan residents.”
If you live in Florida you can search online for Vernors and you will discover that you can purchase Vernors from The Vernors Store
Selling products online enables merchants to aggregate people. For instance, there may be only a handful of people in Tampa that will purchase Vernors, but in towns across America there might be 1,000,000 interested folks. Still that number would not substantiate offering Vernors in individual shops. Regardless, the product can easily be sold on the internet, and that is the basic idea. Preference isolation will bring shoppers to the online marketplace in a systematic manner. The critical step is creating the demand for this Michigan based product. The same task faced by start up companies and growth hackers but made easier by internet marketing.