Defining your audience by who you’re against
Who you’re against can define you as clearly as who you serve. Calvin Ross Carl compares punk’s enemies with Marzocchi’s, from min-maxing tinkerers to the riders mountain bikers call dentists.
Summary
Calvin Ross Carl uses two examples to show how enemies define an audience. Punk stands up for the working class against mainstream music and the government. Marzocchi, which makes mountain bike shocks, stands up for adrenaline junkies and against nerdy tinkerers who min-max everything, plus the dentists: mountain bike slang for rich riders with fancy bikes who don’t really know how to ride.
Highlights
- Punk’s enemies are mainstream music and the government.
- Marzocchi stands for adrenaline junkies, not min-maxers.
- Insider slang like dentists makes the line clear.
Key insights
Every brand can have an enemy
Even a company that makes bike shocks can stand against a way of riding.
Slang reveals the boundary
The terms insiders use for outsiders show exactly where a subculture draws its line.
Detailed analysis
Calvin admits this is the mean side of subculture thinking, but it’s effective. Naming who a brand is against does in one move what pages of persona description often can’t: it makes clear who the brand isn’t for, which sharpens everything aimed at the people it is for.
Conclusion
Define who your brand is against, and your real audience comes into focus.
For example, when we go to an absolute classic subculture, like punk bands, punk stands up for the working class, and mainstream music and the government are its enemies. Very simple. Granted, that is very much a rebel brand.
But then you go to Marzocchi, the mountain bike gear brand. They just make shocks for bikes, but they really stand up for adrenaline junkies, and they’re against nerdy tinkerers who want to min-max and make the best out of everything.
But here’s another side of it: this is a term that all the mountain bike guys use when we work with them. They’re against dentists. Dentists was slang that they use for rich guys with really fancy bikes who don’t really know how to ride, and they kind of just get in all the hardcore guys’ way when they’re riding. So that’s kind of the mean side of it, but it really easily defines who you’re not.