You're hiding. 🔬 EBH
And yes, I can see that you're hiding.
When Steve Jobs came back to Apple, his first initiative was to kill 70% of the products Apple was selling. Too many combinations of options chasing all potential customers. They were trying to be all things to all people, effectively trying to out-Compaq and out-Dell Compaq and Dell despite being way smaller than those two giants.
He got rid of most of the products and built a strategy of, “we’re not here for anyone who wants a computer, we’re here for people who want a Mac.” A few months later, he released the first iMac in five colors. If you weren’t around then, you would not have believed the amount of attention and press five colors got.
Suddenly, Apple wasn’t “yet another computer company.” They were APPLE. They stood apart. They weren’t for everyone. That’s how they became one of the biggest companies in the world.
Ford used to make cars for everyone. They made small cars and family cars and minivans and fast cars and SUVs and off-road cars and big trucks and and and.
As a global manufacturer, who was their customer? Anyone with a driver’s license. They were all things to all people, meaning they were boxed in. They couldn’t be too… anything, because that might scare people off.
So a few years ago, Ford decided to stop making everyday cars (for the most part) to focus on muscle cars and big trucks. Suddenly, focusing on a tighter audience allows them to do some pretty cool stuff. Have you seen the electric Mustang? The doorless Raptor? They definitely aren’t for anyone. These cars are saying something. They are no longer wheeled appliances you have to have, they are lust-worthy machines some people lust after.
You can’t go north and south at the same time. You end up standing still.
It may feel “safe” to try and appeal to the widest possible range of people. But that sense of safety isn’t just false, it is actively weakening you and anything you might want to say.
The commercials on Spanish-language TV aren’t different because they are in Spanish. They look different. They feel different. They promote products you’ve never heard of before. Why? Because they aren’t for you.
The commercials for sports betting are different during the Super Bowl than the ones shown on sports shows because they are very different audiences.
Think how different a commercial for cryptocurrency is when it’s on broadcast TV versus the one on YouTube shown only to people who watch a lot of crypto videos.
Trying to appeal to everyone is a way of hiding from having to say and do something specific for your audience.
Hedging your bets, trying to expand what you offer to more and more people waters down what you have to say to the point where no one will care about what you have to say.
Get serious about who you are and what you offer. more to the point, get serious about the things that only some people want.
The world is telling you to go remote or at least hybrid. They have PILES of stats saying that’s what “everybody” wants. But are those YOUR people who want that? You can hire successfully asking people to come into the office every day. You just won’t be for everyone. The magic is in saying WHY this policy makes you a great place for some people to work (in a way that doesn’t make leadership sound tone deaf and out of touch).
Don’t be for everyone. That’s not possible.
So who are you and who are you for?
++++
Look. My new book, Employer Branding for Small Business, is in final reviews before I get it designed and ready for printing. Aaaaand I have to edit the videos for the class that goes along with it. Yikes, this is a lot of work.
So I need your help. Sign up for the waiting list to get goodies and discounts. And if you know someone at a smaller business, one with less than 1,000 employees, PLEASE let them know that this resource is FOR THEM. It is jam-packed with tactics and step-by-step walkthroughs so that anyone in a smaller business can take advantage of their brand.
***This Newsletter Contains No ChatGPT***
###