On pleasing others with your brand

People are often encouraged to focus just too much on pleasing themselves. This usually leads to thinking that every work endeavor should have self-pleasure as one of its objectives. However, when looking at the market, it’s clear that self-pleasure, that is, creating a product that one loves, isn’t what yields results, especially if you know your taste is utterly different from the customers you have. You might find bliss in your product and advertise it enthusiastically, but in the end, it’s the consumer who decides whether your product is lovable or not.

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Taking this approach isn’t all that bad, though. There will always be like-minded individuals, willing to share that love, and one will come across as more authentic, being able to connect better with the audience.

The alternative is pleasing others. Let’s say we start with an idea that interests us and that we love. We execute it and gain some followers. Yet, there’s a long way to go to grow. We study our target customers better and decide that we would make some tweaks so that we deliver a more appealing result. This process goes on and on, until we find that the original thing doesn’t exist anymore. A commercial hit is born.

This means, of course, that things might take the shape of a more artificial project, suited to attract a broader audience, and even though connection is still possible to some degree, it wouldn’t be the same as in a more authentic kind of offer.

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I believe there should be a balance between one's vision and taste, and the target customers our product engages. It's important to keep one's essence when evolving and provide the audience with a meaningful experience that builds connection between them and the brand. Yes, it requires becoming a bit of a people pleaser, but always reminding them why they interacted with the brand in the first place.