Who it's for! : The marketing super power

It's a common notion that marketing is all about advertising. Its not true, true marketing is creating change. In the 70s, it was time for mass marketing. Companies used to spend dollars on advertising to every one. More money spent was equivalent to more revenue. For certain time it worked. At some point of time companies used to earn $2 for every dollar they spent on ads. It was the time of televisions. There were few channels so people didn't have an option. Traditional marketing used to be playing tricks, coercing and fearmongering.

But now the game has completely changed. There are thousands of option for a person to choose from. If a channel starts showing ads we can move to the next. If a company suddenly increases the price, we can choose some other. The new era marketing has completely changed. Mass marketing doesn't seem to work now.

The concept of MVP, Minimum Viable Product is popular and well accepted. What this means that instead of building the whole product analyze the most important feature and build it. Similarly in marketing world there is Smallest Viable Market.

Instead of targeting everyone, focus on a small segment of user you want to serve. That is the only segment you will focus on. Leave the rest. If even someone outside this segment comes and asks, you will tell them this product/service is not for you.
But then with the above approach, aren't we missing out clients and customers? May be a group outside the SVM might be interested. Who knows!! And if we target everyone we will end up on no mans island. In February, 2026 there were three prominent AI model companies: Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. Google was only focusing on general retail customer, and Anthropic on Coders. OpenAI had the first mover advantage, but it targeted everyone. That lead to people losing trust on OpenAI as it was not able to cater the expectations of anyone. Focus on a small segment, and be the best brand for them.

The band Grateful Dead focused on a small segment of user base. They consistently created music. They had only one blockbuster release. But their total earnings were equivalent to the earnings of Taylor Swift. Not everyone can get extraordinary hits but we can have a playbook which can be repeated to get success most of the time. Focusing solely on the SVM gives you exclusivity and focus. What if it does not workout? The answer : Why do you think you can win in the general market when the product failed with the focused market.

The most important question to ask "Who it's for???". We need to think about their personas and worldviews. Worldview is the way a person perceives the world. What is his/hers culture and upbringing. After we select a SVM, we need to spend time to think on all of these details. After we get those details, we need to build a story, a narrative that will bring a change, a journey with our prospect to their dreams and desire. Every story we have should have their roots in their dreams and desire. If we compare our work to a tree then its roots should be in the soil of the dreams and desire of our prospects. As an example, nobody wants a drill bit, its a hole that is required. More importantly, why a hole. To hang a shelf, to organize books and clothes. What would this do, it would make the house look cool spacy and clean. Maybe it our prospect would get praise from their spouse. This is the reason, their dream or desire. The root of buying a drill bit is not to make a hole but to get the praise of their spouse or relatives.

Target the early adopters, the neophilic. They have a craving for something new. They don't try out your product because of its superiority but because its new. They can act as the starting point.

Instead of coercing or fearmongering or just describing the features of our product, we should map the desire and dreams of our prospect to our product in our narrative and this would create trust and tension in the prospect. The tension of falling behind, in the above case its not making your loved ones happy. To relieve this tension you get the product. Tension is not same as fear. Fear makes people numb and stagnant. After the prospect buys the product he might not feel the worth, he might regret buying. But tension creates trust and hence forward motion.

While thinking of the narrative you need to consider the sonder of our clients. While thinking you must not think in your perspective but in your prospects perspective. Everyone is a main character in their story. They know their relative status and want to upgrade it with all means. In your narrative it should be very clearly evident, how your work will help them achieve. Its all about serving your prospects, helping them instead of selling your product.
In the process there will be critics. Even masterpiece works have one star ratings. But you need to understand everyone is right. The critics are right. They did not like the work not because the work was bad but because of their worldviews or circumstances. If its someone from your SVM talk to them try to get the reason and improve your narrative.

You cannot be selfish in marketing. And after a prospect buys your work, it should not make them feel tricked. The feeling should be of a winner. As if they won. Only then trust will be built.

Once the trust is build, your clients will be your salesman. The ratchet starts then. It creates more tension and the trust the forward motion does not stop. Same happened with slack. They targeted a small segments, some of them were neophilics. But then it created a tension. All the office discussion started to happen on slack. It created tension. Either fall behind, not being part of the discussion or just onboard yourself to slack. The one way motion made slack, one of the most adopted productivity tool.

A simple playbook

• Choose your Smallest Viable Market — a narrowly defined, valuable segment.

• Research personas deeply: motivations, worldview, pain points, rituals.

• Craft a story and value proposition that speaks to their dreams and identity.

• Build and test a focused product/offer for them.

• Iterate based on real feedback; only then consider expanding.

• Make your product the best choice for your SVM, make it irresistible.

Focus gives you clarity, authenticity and a better chance to create real change for the people who matter most. Who is it for? Figure that out first — everything else follows.