Who’s It NOT For?

Why asking the opposite question may matter more.

Those of us who work in brand management and/or marketing spend a lot of time talking about our strategic or target audience(s).

We create personas.

We conduct research and focus groups.

We build brands specifically aimed at creating connection with them.

This is all good stuff, and this all matters. It helps us be very clear about who we’re building for, who we seek to serve, and the group we would want to miss us if we were gone. We should absolutely continue doing these things.

There is, however, also an opportunity to do the inverse exercise as a way of honing the audience further: ask yourself, “Who’s it NOT for?”.

But don’t ask it rhetorically.

Actually ask and answer the question.

Discuss and debate it with your team, your partners, your agency.

There’s a reason this question often is either skipped entirely or asked rhetorically (and not truly answered). Asking this question requires you to make tradeoffs – and tradeoffs feel risky. But, if you want to keep your brand as sharp and resonant as possible, that’s a risk you have to take. You owe it to your brand.

Having a clearly defined answer to “Who’s it NOT for?” allows you to:
-Ensure your messaging stays true and sharp for the audience you seek to serve (not letting it get watered down as you try to appeal to everyone).
-Take a stand on issues that matter to your audience, because if they matter to your audience, they should matter to your brand (not playing it safe because an issue could be polarizing)
-Put stakes in the ground in terms of where and how your brand should show up – finding the eyeballs that matter (not simply finding eyeballs)

So next time you start talking about target audiences, personas, or where/how your brand should present itself – hit pause and ask yourself “Who’s it NOT for?”

Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,

Eric