Marketing suffers when it seeks to appeal to everyone, brands thrive when they appeal to more than customers.

One of our favorite cartoonists, Tom Fishbourne, takes a poke at eager marketers who dilute their efforts by vainly attempting to appeal to everyone.

Of course, most marketing is an outbound effort, designed to maximize sales at the lowest possible cost. It is a complex and dynamic game, and it’s little wonder some marketers “go big and wide” in their view of the market.

Sharp focus has multiple rewards

At the same time, highly focused marketing efforts often prove exceptionally effective. Marketing that covertly or overtly states “not for everyone” tends to mean more to the brand’s loyalist (witness the focused loyalty and financial success of Apple’s ecosystem vs the disparate and fragmented worlds of Android, et al).

But branding isn’t the same as marketing, if you care to make the distinction. Brands can be aimed at a highly focused target group, but they need to also mean something to people outside that group. Specifically, such brands need to hold meaning for people inside and outside the enterprise. Again, many of the most successful focused brands are driven by highly involved and  engaged product designers, customer service teams, and sales and marketing organizations.

Bridging internal and external mindsets

The need for brand thinking that can bridge all these disparate internal and external stakeholders, brings us back to the people being pilloried in Tom’s cartoon. At a certain level, brands need to “be for everyone”, and while we’re not talking about everyone on the planet, we are addressing the needs of all the different people touched by the brand in one way or another.

To reach this point of meaning for a virtual hodge-podge of human needs, interests, beliefs, and aspirations, one has to plunge down to the deep connections that unite all people. Its a matter of reaching down below the surface of the highly focused consumer you aim at, and the engineering, production, management, financial, etc, mindsets that seek meaning from your brand.

Don’t blandly pursue everyone, but remember to pursue everyone that matters through meaning

Branding needs to work to a broader agenda than marketing. Managed properly, meaningful brands propel themselves to greatness by truly mattering to the people vital to their success, both within and outside the business.

Don’t only think about your customers and prospects. Create a brand aura that fills everyone your brand touches with differentiating purpose and meaning.

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Emotive Brand is a San Francisco branding agency