STRATEGIC THINKING: THE CURSE OF THE MAINSTREAM APPEAL
Is the mainstream appeal initially required for an innovation or a product to be adopted by the masses? Is it a precondition or a necessary driver for success in the contemporary marketplace?
u·biq·ui·ty /yo͞oˈbikwədē/ Noun. The fact of appearing everywhere or of being very common
One of the most interesting parts of being a futurist is hearing questions about when and at what rate the future will be ubiquitous. Everybody wants to know — before anyone else — what the future will look like. But, on top of that, everyone also wants to know how soon that particular future or trend will have a mass appeal. Having heard these impossible demands on the future, I keep asking myself: Is the mainstream appeal initially required for an innovation or a product to be adopted by the masses? Is it a precondition or a necessary driver for success in the contemporary marketplace?
Below I look at some prominent and successful brands in the marketplace and let their stories reveal the ways they have facilitated and maintained the attention and affection of the masses:
Starbucks: Let’s time travel to 1987 when Starbucks only had 17 stores. Was Starbucks concerned about its mass appeal? The brand has definitely not been launched to attract the mainstream coffee drinker who was lining up in front of Dunkin Donuts back then. Rather, Starbucks’ early success can be attributed to its tightly integrated value proposition — premium coffee, store atmospherics, and consumer intimacy as service philosophy — that has perfectly aligned with a very carefully conceptualized target market: typically between 25–44 years old, white-collar, affluent, well-educated, often female coffee connoisseurs who were looking for premium coffee experiences/lifestyles.
Game of Thrones (GoT): Was a show like Game of Thrones (GoT) with complex, long, and also violent Medieval narratives expected to have such a huge mainstream attraction? In the early days of the show in 2012, Neil Genzlinger has claimed that GoT only appeals to “Dungeons & Dragons types” and would need to expand its fan base beyond that with some less violent & less complex storytelling. Proving Neil wrong, GoT has not only attracted an average 32.8 million viewers per episode (as of 7th season) over the years but also transformed everyone into a nerd: detectiving for the clues, dissecting screen shots of the close-up scenes, cross-referencing storylines, and/or engaging in endless discussions about the show on Twitter with people they have never met at all. The intense popularity of the show was not driven by a storyline that appeals to the common viewer; rather, its value was deeply founded in & driven by the presence and engagement of the “Dungeons & Dragons types” bestowing legitimacy and coolness onto the series and, as a result, attracting masses.
Theo Chocolate: Theo’s story probably echoes the growth story of several startups, DTC, and digital only brands like Glossier, Casper, Allbirds, Outdoor Voices, Winc etc. Starting in 2006, the founders designed the value proposition and value creation process firmly around the ideals of PLACE (origin of the cocoa), PEOPLE (fair trade), and PLANET (global footprint) [Babson College Case, 2012]. The brand’s goal was to do for cocoa and chocolate what Starbucks did for coffee, changing how people think of and purchase chocolate products. The fair-trade certified, single-origin, blended dark chocolate bars that are produced in entirely ethical and sustainable fashion have resonated well with the young, highly educated, and eco-minded consumers of the Pacific Northwest region. With multiple rounds of private equity funding, Theo’s Chocolate is now in Whole Foods, Walmart, Amazon, CVS etc.
RX Bar: RX Bar — a clean-label protein bar with whole-food ingredients — was founded in 2012 in one of the suburban neighborhoods of Chicago. Originally, the brand resonated highly with the cross-fit community due to the transparency and simple ingredient list. In 2017, the company was acquired by Kellogg for $600 Million and, today, RX is distributed nationally at Whole Foods, Target, and other major retailers. The current mainstream adoption of the product is not due to its initial mainstream appeal; rather its tight value proposition for well conceptualized segment of health conscious consumers.
Supreme: Supreme — the cultish street wear brand — started in 1994 as a skateboarding store in SoHo, Manhattan, NYC. Originally, it has targeted the burgeoning New York City skateboarding scene with logo-ed hoodies and sweatshirts. The skateboarding origins have attracted consumers who are interested in emerging streetwear to Supreme’s unique collections rooted in its anarchic heritage channeling various underground style currents. In addition to the celebrity attention to the brand, the collaborations with LV, Gucci, DC, Vans, Kaws, Nike, Timberland, the North Face, Oakley have made the brand more visible in the mainstream media. Over the past 20 years, Supreme has transitioned from the skateboarding brand to a $1 Billion streetwear brand. The company attracts big crowds of consumers to its retail, satellite, and online stories during the limited release, product drops every Thursday. Supreme has no intention to have a mainstream appeal and be in every retail store. They want to stay true to the legacy of the brand and, unlike other skateboarding brands like Skechers, refuse the mainstream demands. According to its founder, Supreme “needs to be cool to survive.”
“Mr. Jebbia insists he is not elitist about who wears Supreme. If a 9-year-old from New Jersey wants a Supreme hat because Kanye wears one, fine. But he is loathe to water down Supreme’s boundary-pushing urban sensibility to cross over to the suburban mainstream.” ( NY Times, 2017)
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
As evident from the above examples, brands or new products do not need the mainstream appeal as an initial criteria or requirement to have a broader success in the marketplace. There are other strategies for brands and innovations to gain the affection and attention of the “mainstream consumer” without an initial mass appeal of the product. The persisting concern of companies regarding whether or when Trend X would have a mainstream appeal lock teams in a closed loop of chasing trends and “what is next?” discussions. Brands that continuously pursue “mainstream attention” ignore the differences among the consumers and tend to connect the consumer needs along the lowest common denominator. Also, fetishizing the mainstream appeal limits good and creative branding and marketing strategies as it reduces the role of branding to building awareness, marketing to consumer acquisition, and digital strategy to conversion.
Critically thinking about mainstream appeal does not necessarily mean that every product has to adopt niche targeting strategies; but the above examples illustrate that there is value in seriously considering tighter targeting strategies that are fitting well with the brand’s value propositions. Here are some of the strategies — instead of mainstreaming — we recommend along the different phases of the product lifecycle:
Critically thinking about mainstream appeal does not necessarily mean that every product has to adopt niche targeting strategies; but the above examples illustrate that there is value in seriously considering tighter targeting strategies that are fitting well with the brand’s value propositions.
Introduction: You can’t make everyone happy you are not pizza! Shake off the urge and conditioned desire to be liked by the masses. Undifferentiated mass marketing is not a good option even for commodities like salt, water, or electricity anymore. The role of the innovator or new product designers is not about finding the product with the right features that will address the least common denominator of consumer needs in a loosely defined marketplace. In a highly fragmented marketplace, the marketing strategies, especially at the early phases of a product or product category, should be based on a deeper understanding of the evolving needs, desires, and anxieties of the online or offline tribes, micro-tribes, consumption or brand communities, or, in more traditional terms, well-defined market segment(s). The foundational success of the brand hinges on the challenge of building a tight value proposition for this well defined target market. That’s the yeast of the bread. That tight market fit is the foundation of a strong brand.
The foundational success of the brand hinges on the challenge of building a tight value proposition for this well defined target market.
Growth: Mainstream is a growth strategy, not an innovation or launch strategy. Mainstream discussions should rather be part of the growth phase and shape the strategies of market penetration (further into the initial target segment with new and repeat purchases) and market development (targeting and attracting new segments). In this phase, brands devise their roadmap about how to scale and how to resonate with bigger consumer bases. The right growth strategy — maybe eventually to mass appeal — is about creating that market fit with the original target market that will exude/radiate enough coolness to attract other people to come on board. With the exception of super viral, very fast scaling products or services, mainstreaming is a process with multiple phases/stages of adding the right segments and/or right markets in the right order to build the mainstream attraction. For example, GoT does not only reach to audience base but build its audience base. The popularity of a TV series is a process and it builds up as the show adds layers of different consumer segments/constituencies with varying engagements. The same principle applies to other brand examples.
Mainstreaming is a process with multiple phases/stages of adding the right segments and/or right markets in the right order to build the mainstream attraction.
Maturity: Managing constituencies rather than managing masses. We look at several brands/product categories at their maturity phase and we assume that it is their initial mass appeal that has helped them to attract a broader consumer base. We ignore or do not remember/know the process that has warranted the awareness and affection of a good size of the market. Early phase identifies the right segment that will be a tight fit for the value position of the brand, growth phase adds segments in the right order and time, maturity phase manages the different constituencies around the brand.
Maturity phase manages the different constituencies around the brand.
The original & more condensed version of this article was first published on Mintel blog on October 7th, 2019.
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