product � Glowleaf

Sep 16

Most people are average, normal and boring…

…and so are the businesses they create. Or their products. Or their books. Or their blogs.

The masses are exactly that, massive. You cannot create something that appeals to everyone. Actually you can, but it will be boring. Boring does not sell.

Rock and Roll did not appeal to everyone, it appealed to the troubled sexually supressed youth of the times. Apple products are not for minimum wage people (which consist the majority of the population). Designer clothes are for multimillionare’s women and supermodels or hollywood stars. They are not that many… I bet you could fill a theater with all of them.

Take a step back, and look at your product, or service, or website from a distance. Does it look convincing? Does it look professional? Does it convey the right message, the one you are trying to send?

Does it even look interesting?

No matter how excited and passionate you are about your product or website, I am sure that people do not share your feelings. If people tell you “Yeah, well, it’s like that website” and you protest “No, mine has this difference! It’s not the same” then you need to rethink a lot of stuff.

I am going to use Godin’s term here: Try to make your product remarkable.

You want examples?

T-shirt hell. They are amazing. They insult everyone they can find, and that only makes them more popular, and with a more devoted audience. They got press coverage, famous people wearing their tshirts, and playboy babes photoshooting with some of the dirty ones.
Facebook. Yes, facebook. Streamlined design (at least until they integrated those disgusting widgets), viral features, solid website. They simply made the best social website, and that is truly remarkable. This one is an exception, because it is for everyone, but it does that amazingly well.
Wickedfire. A forum for webmasters, SEOs, affiliates and grayscalehatters. What makes it remarkable is the pissed off feel inside, the endless vulgarity, the ebook hatred, and the boobs icon sanctity. No, its not for everyone, and that is exactly what makes it so great.
Cambridge University. You did not expect that one. They have the largest rejection rates. Why? Because they believe they are the best, and they cut off all the slackers mercilessly. What does that give them? The title of “the best university”. And people spend years of their lives, and huge amounts of money just to get in there.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Do some serious self critisizing here, ask yourself “why the hell is my product any different than the other shit on the pile?”

If it’s not exceptional at anything, then why should someone buy it? Here is a list, if you can’t place your product in one of the spots, then change it and put it in there.

My product/service/website is:

the most informative
the most laconic
the most annoying
the most advanced
the most noob friendly
the most expensive
the cheapest
the easiest to use
the hardest to use
the most serious
the most comical
the most well known
the easiest to get into
the hardest to get into
the prettiest
the ugliest
the oldest
the newest

You must not appeal to everyone. If you do, you shift to the average, and average is dull.

Forget the norm, touch the extremes.

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