If you haven’t picked up Seth Godin’s We Are All Weird, grab it for a quick read. Godin does an excellent job framing what we are all feeling but may not necessarily be able to articulate about how mass marketing is dying and our opportunity for choice allows for long tail preferences. It’s because of the revolution he talks about:
“The Internet connects and protects the weird by connecting and amplifying their tribes.”
In the old days, mass media and marketing owned the airwaves, publications and distribution channels. It was difficult for little guys to self-organize, much less broadcast a consistent message. The platforms played to mass marketing.
Today, we are all weird. Our ability to choose and assert our choices on the world around us changes everything. Yet, so many are caught in the old ways of trying to win new customers. The strategy for winning is more honest and substantive. Note what Seth puts forth as a strategy, “If you want to sell $900 handmade rifles to obsessive collectors, the easiest way to grow your sales is to grow the market of obsessive rifle collectors.”
He is talking about the concepts from his book, Tribes. Make connections. Build a tribe. The byproduct and consequence is that value is exchanged and things get sold. It’s a natural process linked to an obsessed and passionate group of people. Lead and find out how it works.
The Strategy To Embrace
We are fully in the new economy. Our ability to choose and be weird is at an all time high. So how will mass marketing really work if we are no longer compliant or obliged?
Here are the strategies and mindset I work with my clients to create impact and results which Godin is purporting:
- Be highly relevant
- Be precise and targeted
- Get personal
- Think custom, not mass
- Individualize offerings and communications
- Be human
It may be a completely different way for your business to bend if you are used to pushing out mass marketing and production. It is the future and the present reality of what works. Your opportunities and longevity depend on changing towards the reality that we are all weird. It’s about the individual, not the masses.
What would it mean for you and your business to cater to the weird?