I had a man bun for about a year— and I learned that people either love the haircut, or hate it. That experience paralleled something I learned in branding and business.
You want your product or business to be polarizing.
The tendency as an entrepreneur is to want to appeal the the widest demographic of people. In reality, the sweet-spot is where 1/3 of your audience love you, 1/3 are fairly indifferent, and 1/3 of the people hate what you're offering.
In trying to appeal to everyone, it's like you're taking that middle segment of people who are warm and indifferent— and you're stretching them out. So the segment of people who love what you're doing shrinks because you're no longer speaking to just their needs.
An example of brands that maintain polarity is the classic "Apple versus PC". Where there are two distinct sides, and people tend to like one over the other.
I think of that need to appeal to everyone as the "Old Navy Jean Analogy". Where Old Navy's business model is to sell the most jeans to the highest number of people possible. So they create a cut that fits on most people. But it doesn't fit any one person well.
Compare that to a designer jean company. Where they take one body type, and craft the perfect jean for that. In doing so, they lose the opportunity to serve all the other body types. But the one group they fit well becomes their evangelists. That fit is almost like Cinderella's slipper— where it's meant to fit this specific type of person perfectly.
That designer company can then easily out compete the larger brand whose jeans just fit everyone okay.
So the trick is to find that one thing your brand or company does well, and to just dig into that. You want to experiment in the market until you experience a negative push back. Then you can sort of embrace it, and lean into that pressure. Because it's better to fit one group well, than to fit everyone poorly.
That's all I have for you this week. Until next time, thank you— and you're welcome.
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Music credit: Beck— Where It's At, © 1996
