Are You Boring Enough?

So you want to be everything to everybody.  

You think that the way to ride out this storm is to be a jack of all trades.   

There are two problems with this approach.  First, there is already a company in your category  that has cornered the market on boring.

As Seth Godin writes, in the book Purple Cow, “In almost every market, the boring slot is filled. The product designed to appeal to the largest possible audience already exists, and displacing it is awfully difficult. The real growth comes with products that annoy, offend, don't appeal, are too expensive, too cheap, too heavy, too complicated, too simple — too something."

Second, if you are a jack of all trades, you will be a master of none.

You have to find your niche, so it can make you rich.

Be something.  Don't try to be everything.

A great example of this is Starbucks. I personally don't like their coffee.  At all.  It is too strong and too bitter.  I am a community coffee person.   To be honest, I like the smell of coffee more than the actual taste.  I am really a hot chocolate drinker.  That way I can look like the rest of the adults at the table.

Back to Starbucks.  So the coffee is strong and bitter.  Does it appeal to everyone?  No.  Will it win a taste test with "coffee virgins"?  Definately not.  It is too strong.  

But those aren't the right questions.  The important question is, do the people that love it REALLY love it.  YES.  They are loyal.  They are advocates.  They will not stray to a competing brand.  

Isn't that the point?