We want our brands (or the message that we’re consistently putting out into the world) to be as specific to our audience as possible. It’s great if we need 50 fans to support our project and we have a message that speaks directly to only those 50 people.
As our minimum fanbase gets bigger, the more generic our brand needs to be; but we can have micro brands that speak more specifically to different subgroups or individuals.
Every fan / customer / client / audience member has their own take on the personality of your service anyway. If we have the opportunity, we can help guide their take.
The macrobrand
We speak a message that sounds positive and helpful to our smallest viable audience.
With this example “bat soda” we’re only trying to reach people who purchase for the family. It’s not for everyone in the world, but it is for a big population.
People get who this is for and what it does.
The micro brand
When we can speak to a sub-group of our fans, we can be more specific. The more specific we are, the more valuable.
If a stranger walks up to me on the street and recommends a movie, it’s not as valuable as if my best friend recommends a movie. The value comes from my best friend giving advice that includes my tastes, hates, mood, lifestyle, and a million other factors.
If bat soda sponsors a female CEO summit, they might make their ad more specific.
Now, it’s not serving a generic issue of “bonding with family” it’s serving…
- “bonding with family”
- “struggling as a woman”
- “being a good mom”
- “keeping up energy”
- “balancing work and life”
- “being productive”
Go more micro
If we’re selling something higher priced (like trying to get a salaried job or a half-time show, or a book to a publisher), we can delve more into the individual needs of a person. Bat soda would probably never be sold at a price to warrant this.
Our microbrand — without breaking the original message of our macro brand — can become a response directly to an individual person’s needs. That means more points of value and exactly the points that matter to that person.
Forming the macro
I think something helpful about this is that we can remember that our macrobrand is most likely not the last time we’re going to talk to our fan. We’re going to have other chances to speak to them more directly and specifically. We don’t need to say everything possible in our macro approach, we can wait to tell them the details of the awesome things that apply.
I didn’t meet my wife thru a dating app, so I’m not an expert on that, but just as another analogy…
Tom would set up his dating profile to show his core values and eliminate any easy ‘no’s. Then, when messaging someone, maybe they like a certain movie, Tom could start a discussion about that movie. He wouldn’t need to have that movie on his general profile, because it’s not a deal breaker. In the discussion, it’s a way to find specific connection.