How Can Limiting The Size of Your Potential Audience Be a Good Idea? How can making chioces that limit your audience be a good strategy?
What If Your Brand Is Surly?
It’s simple! When your choices make it easier for your audience to connect very deeply with you and your values, it can be a great strategy. Even if the audience is smaller, it’s a powerful differentiator when they care more about you!
This video originally appeared in LinkedIn
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TRANSCRIPT:
Hi guys, Rebeca Arbona with BrandTrue. What if your brand is Surly? So what does that mean? I want to talk to you guys today about a bicycle brand called Surly that I think is such a great example of how powerful it can be for a brand to have a really authentic, particular tone of voice and to be very, very niched down.
So we’ll start with the name. Once the name is Surly, you understand that there’s a completely different attitude going on here. It’s actually a very sort of independent, alternative kind of bike brand in the sense that they’re not sold online in any way. You can only go to small, local bike shops. So they’re supporting bike shops in that way by their distribution.
Also, the branding that’s on every bike, the decals that show the maker, with Surly bikes they’re actually removable and their tagline is “Make It Your Own.” So they’re a little bit of one of those like brandless anti-brands. But they very much… when you give them your money you’re someone who is probably deeply in alignment with their values.
They’re a B Corp, which means even the way they’re structured, it’s about environment and workers and things like that. Actually ahead of profits. Profits come secondary. So the people that buy into the brand, like my daughter, who told me about it, they very much know all these things about Surly.
And I think it’s one of those, it’s a wonderful example of where the niche they’ve drawn for themselves, it may be narrow, but it’s quite deep. The people that engage with them, love them and are very happy to continue to buy from them, to talk about them, to spread the word. It’s a really great business strategy. I mean, unless you’re Walmart, you’re not selling to everyone. But how can you live your values with great authenticity and connect with your people with great richness and depth? So that’s what I think. Be Surly! It can be a wonderful strategy. Let me know what you think. Bye!
