Marketing

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    The Smallest Viable Audience

    Seth Godin with some smart insight.

    The strategy of the smallest viable audience doesn’t let you off the hook-it does the opposite. You don’t get to say, “well, we’ll just wait for the next random person to find us.” Instead, you have to choose your customers-who’s it for and what’s it for. And when you’ve identified them, the opportunity/requirement is to create so much delight and connection that they choose to spread the word to like-minded peers.

    Not everyone, but someone. And it turns out that ‘someone’ isn’t as easy as it sounds. When you strip away the alternative mantra of “you can pick anyone, and we’re anyone,” then you have to lean into the obligation of being the sort of provider that people would miss if you were gone. That’s not easy, but people with this sort of focus wouldn’t have it any other way.

    This is like the idea of getting to 100 true fans. I wonder what that number is for me.

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    The Pattern

    Dave Pell took a story about Ben Affleck, his marriage, and drinking and turned it into a treatise on how the media screws up stories. You should read his assessment of the Affleck kerfuffle, but more importantly, why his explanation and description of the reports fall right in line with the dumbest shit, the media did and does with Trump.

    Why would I waste this space on a salacious Hollywood story? Because this is the exact same pattern we’ve seen play out on much more important stories from the beginning of the Trump era through the present. A false statement gets made. The headlines feature that false statement. That statement spreads. Social media chimes in. The false statement is challenged. And the headlines change to account for that challenge. But the focus of the story, and the social media discussion around it, is still on the initial falsehood.

    Clickbait headlines are only there for clicks. The real story is immaterial.

    I want to be informed and pay attention to what is going on and ignore fake news and clickbait on the internet. Still, it is becoming increasingly impossible to vet reliable sources.

    I think I’m going to start really culling my information intake. Wish me luck.

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    The Cleveland Guardians

    When I first saw it, I didn’t love it. After a bit, it’s growing on me more and more, especially after learning its origins. I have never been to Cleveland and have never heard of the ‘Guardians of Traffic’ or even noticed them in Major League (a comedy about the Cleveland Indians, among other things). Also, I read that Corey Barnes made a good case for ‘Guardians’ a year ago.

    Apparently, the Guardians was one of several fan favorites going into the announcement. The name is inspired by the four art deco statues, the Guardians Of Traffic, that appear on a bridge near the team’s stadium. It’s also apparent the team wanted something that worked well with the “dians” part of the original name. I would have bet they were going to go with “Spiders” for historical and obvious cool logo reasons.

    However, the new logo looks decent. It’s not Seattle Kraken-good, but it’s a cool script, even though it kind of looks like the Milwaukee Tool logo. The winged “G” baseball (the “Guardian’s Fastball,” per the team) reminds me of a bad video game graphic, and I dislike it a lot, but it isn’t the Chief Wahoo caricature, so there’s that.

    I do like the new ‘C’ mark. It’s a blend of the current ‘C’ mark mixed with the new Guardians type. It’s far better than the “Fastball” logo. The jerseys with Cleveland across the front should have been in the same font as the Guardians script, so it kind of throws the whole look off.

    Doing a complete brand change is difficult. I think they pulled it off pretty well. Next up… hey there, Washington Football Team …what’s it gonna be? Red Tails? Renegades? Redhawks? Generals?

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    Their Satanic Majesties Request

    Here’s something you don’t see every day. Madeline Holcombe, writing for CNN, has a story about the Illinois State Capitol and the Satanic Temple of Chicago:

    The Illinois State Capitol is decking the halls with holly, a menorah, and a Satanic statue.

    This holiday season, the Satanic Temple of Chicago has been granted permission to place their statue in the lobby of the state Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office told CNN.

    The statue is approximately four and a half feet tall and about 18 inches long, spokesman Dave Druker said, and it depicts a snake wrapped around an arm holding an apple with the inscription “knowledge is the greatest gift.”

    The statue has been on display since Monday and will remain through the end of the month, according to officials.>

    How utterly brazen of them.