Decided to restart my regular Tuesday 2¢ series, as someone was kind enough to say they missed it, so here we go…
Watching a cooking show on TV, I discovered the Goldenlight Cafe and Cantina in Amarillo, and in this traditional American burger joint, there is a sign:
We serve good food, not fast food. If you want fast food go to McDonald’s
I love this. It’s a great example of a business that is confidently choosing its audience. They are explicitly saying that we are not right for you, if you are looking for something that we are not.
As a marketer, even in B2B as I am, we seem to be hard-wired to say YES, try to please everyone, driven by the Fear Of Missing A Lead (FOMAL — OK, I just made that up)
If those suffering from FOMAL ran this restaurant, saw the feedback that a customer profile wanted their food quicker, they probably wouldn’t stand firm behind their values, put up a sign and say no; they would wring their hands about how they can better serve this audience niche.
And of course, in doing that, in trying to serve the food faster, break something that another segment of other audience or customer base really cares about.
FOMAL would make their offering more generic, easier to make, consume, remove the resistance, and become like the others.
Or worse, use their marketing to promise fast food, no doubt it would be “industry-leading”, find the stats that prove they did serve a burger fast once, and then let the customer discover the disappointment of an unfulfilled brand promise.
In either case, losing the people that actually care about them.
Coincidently, as I was thinking about this post, Scott Monty, who I have followed since he was Global Head of Social at Ford (one of my original Twitter influencers) wrote in his newsletter about losing subscribers and in discussing it on Twitter he said:
I’d rather be respected as a smaller-volume expert with a dedicated audience than a larger-volume generalist with a lukewarm audience.
Scott Monty
Lets face it, what we do whether it’s a marketing campaign, a B2B software product, a burger, or a newsletter it isn’t for everyone.
Then we have to be prepared for the fact that what makes it engaging to our core audience or fans, the thing we need to protect and promote is that it isn’t for everyone.
And then be really clear to our audience what it is, of course ensuring there is a big enough audience for it, but that it isn’t for everyone.
If you want fast food go to McDonald’s
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I’m a 3xCMO, now a marketing strategy advisor and podcast host at Rockstar CMO. Although, I’m not a rock star, but a marketing leader, strategist, content marketer, columnist, speaker, industry watcher, and creator of ART (Awareness, Revenue, and Trust) for the companies I work with. But most of all, I am an enthusiastic tea drinker.
You can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter, or now Threads! – or listen to my weekly podcast at Rockstarcmo.com
The half-baked thoughts shared on this blog may not reflect those of my employer or clients, and if the topic of this article is interesting or you just want to say hello please get in touch.