The power of exclusion

When you look at the cover of a book and you see "Best Seller!" it instantly gives it a bit more credibility. "Maybe this author knows what he's talking about if all these other people bought this. I'll give it a shot." you say, as you click checkout on Amazon. This is the psychology of the mass. This is why you never see "This book didn't really sell that well..." on the cover. If you know other people didn't do something, you're in turn less likely to do it.

Unless...

Unless you don't consider yourself part of everybody, of "the mass tribe" as Seth Godin puts it. I know people who don't like certain things or brands or whatever just because a lot of other people like them. It's for a sense of individuality that they do this. But what happens when you put all the people who shun well known (but perfectly fine) brands in favor of the smaller, less known alternative that caters to them? What if you market to only these people instead of those in the middle with a house and 2.3 kids? You create zealots. You move people from mere customers to revolutionaries for your company's cause. That's what Apple originally did, and I still feel like I'm fighting the power by typing this blog on an iBook G4.

Seth Godin is full of wonderful insights, and his new book, We Are All Weird, is no different. He writes that rather than trying to be everything to everyone, shun those you don't want. This will polarize the people you do want to your product.

Take Dr. Pepper TEN, for example. I don't usually drink Dr. Pepper, or any pop for that matter, but this is just too appealing. Dr. Pepper did market research that said that men don't drink many "diet" drinks because they don't feel manly drinking them. So, rather than doing what everyone else was doing and marketing to overweight women, they took a new path. They completely excluded women. They state that it has "Ten rugged, manly calories." and the ads make it clear it's not for females. That's 50% of the market that they just shunned. But they polarized the other half. I'm drinking a Dr. Pepper TEN right now because I feel included (and manly) for doing so.


Think of this next time you're marketing a product. You'll thank yourself for it later.