Chocolate or Raspberry?

My father is a retired Professor who taught for more than 30 years. His students from the first batch in early 1980s still remember him, and some of them wanted to meet at our place and celebrate his career after he retired.

For that occasion, my mother asked me to order some ice cream that everyone could enjoy after dinner. The only problem: I didn't know their flavour preference.

"Order vanilla and chocolate," she said.

Of course. That's the safe choice.

Vanilla and Chocolate: The usual suspects. The people pleasers. Nobody loves them to the core, but hey, nobody hates them too. We didn't know what the guests would like, so these two were the obvious choice.

What if we had ordered, something like, Raspberry? That's something offbeat. I'm sure not everyone would take it, but those who do, I believe, would do it out of sheer love for it.

You see, Raspberry is not a people pleaser. It will never appeal to a lot of people. The target audience is small. But those who lie within that frame, would sometimes drive a few miles extra to get it.

I guess you already get the point I'm trying to make here.

Unless a company has deep pockets to broadcast its message to everyone, it shouldn't act like chocolate or vanilla. It should go the Raspberry way.

Don't appeal to everyone. Don't please everyone. Figure out who the right people are, and strive for their loyalty.

Raspberry is different. It's good in its own way. And there are people out there who value it. They pay extra for it. They go out of their way to get it. And they tell other like-minded people about it.

If loyalty and advocacy are the ultimate objectives, be ruthlessly bold in the way your brand differentiates itself. It pays off.