What Steve Martin Taught us About our Best People.

Written By: Cassandra Bailey

Not Everyone is Going to Like You, and That’s OK

When we bring on a new client or review strategy for an existing account, one of the first things we do is help them identify their target audiences. We call that their “best people,” and it’s where we focus marketing efforts. The process of finding your best people includes recognizing who is not included in that list. Your audience is never “everyone,” no matter how popular your brand may become. (I don’t quite understand it, but some people don’t share my love of the Star Wars franchise.) In fact, if you’re launching something new, a lot of people won’t get it at first.?

Recently, my husband and I watched the AppleTV documentary on comedian Steve Martin, and I had an ah-ha moment: Martin’s success came after he found his best people. Comedy Central ranks Martin #6 in their list of the top 100 standup comics of all time, and he was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, along with five Grammy awards, an Academy Award nomination, and more. As STEVE! (martin): a documentary in 2 pieces reveals Martin’s early career languished.?

Striking resonance with the right audience

When starting as a standup, Martin was booked for a week at the Playboy Restaurant, where his new kind of absurdist comedy bombed. A gig that could have been a big break turned into a flop. Around the same time, he played to a small college audience that responded to his then-unconventional style. When his show ended, he led the audience to get burgers. The unique experience resonated with this specific group of people, and he made it part of his routine.?

When Martin was booked at the Boarding House – the San Francisco music and comedy nightclub that also helped launch the careers of Robin Williams, Ellen DeGeneres, and Jay Leno – he found another audience that loved his style. They became raving fans – influencers decades before social media. Martin’s trademark phrases (remember, “Well, excuse me!”) were emblazoned on t-shirts, the era’s equivalent of GIFs and memes. His popularity grew, and he would go on to host Saturday Night Live, fill arenas, record top-selling albums, write best-selling books, and go on to appear in dozens of movies and TV series – all because he had the instinct to hone in on his best people. Of course, not everyone is a Steve Martin fan, but you can be sure they’re not who he had in mind when he created Only Murders in the Building.

Your audience isn’t everyone

So here’s the lesson: when you’re bringing something new to the market, your audience isn’t everyone, so don’t waste your marketing resources trying to reach the world. In fact, many people may not understand you in the beginning. To borrow one of Martin’s lines, “let’s get small,” in order to think big. Target your best people, give them a unique experience, and turn them into your advocates. (We call it Attention Marketing: moving your target audience – the best people – from Aware to Advocate.)?

We’d love to help you find your best people and turn them into your raving fans; contact us.

And to #SteveMartin – Happy Birthday!