Favorites
What we do comes down to something rather simple: making things others choose.
When they choose us, they’re not just glancing our way. It’s not about grabbing attention. They are opting to invest their limited time on earth with us, and then, because something is clearly delighting them enough that they’d invest that time with us, they’ll go tell others about us. In this way, what grows the thing we make is the thing itself, the experience triggering word of mouth — not the hyping and the hustling and the demanding others pay attention. Because coercion doesn’t work. They need to choose us.
When they choose us, they fit us into their lives willingly, not because we forced our way in but because we earned it.
However.
If we want others to choose us, we have to be their favorite — for that specific purpose, for that specific topic, in that specific medium, for that moment. We can’t produce Yet Another. We need to create The Only. It’s not about brand awareness. It’s about brand affinity.
When we’re their favorite, we give people who already know us the chance to go deeper — rather than immediately demanding they go get others to pay attention to us too.
When we want to be their favorite, our goal is to see a small number responding in a big way — rather than a big top-line number becoming “aware” of us. Passion is the foundation, the hint that we’re someone’s favorite. That’s the signal we need in order to know: We’ve struck gold, we have something special, we should keep going.
A small number of people reacting in a big way.
A small number of people who choose us.
A small number of people who declare, “THIS is my favorite.”
Great marketing isn’t about who arrives. It’s about who stays. The only thing people stay with are their favorite things.
What if we proactively oriented everything we did around that simple thing?
Be their favorite.
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