Startups are ideas searching for a business model.

-Jonathan Fields

Or, as the curious marketer might say, stories in search of their audience.

Of course with startups it gets weird because the first audience is investors and the second is customers. What both those audiences want and need are very different. But starting with audience 1 changes the way you approach audience 2.

It not just about finding AN audience, it’s about finding THE audience.

The one that wants to tell the same story—that wants to co-create a story. With you.

Nuggets from Mickie Kennedy

One of the most important things that small businesses ignore is their own story. What they do that’s unique and different from everybody else. And how they came up with that as a business model.

&

You want to ask meaningful questions that are very timely and specific to right now.

& from (host) Travis Albritton

Your marketing can’t just be about you and your own selfish interest if you want it to resonate with people that you want to interact with your business in a positive way.

Brands Are Narratives

Not many surprising predictions in this piece, but I’ve been waiting for this:

The fastest-growing media channel in 2024, according to Forrester, will be in-game advertising. Almost half of online US adults who use smartphones said they regularly play games on their phones, and although “gaming remains a laggard medium for advertisers,” media giants like Microsoft and Sony are leaning in, which could help convince some advertisers to follow suit

Could be a way for Microsoft to carve out a unique niche with advertisers.

Will 2024 be in-game’s QR moment?

This would be a welcome Christmas present:

prices fell 2.6% [this past October] from a year earlier, marking the fifth straight month prices for durable goods experienced deflation

Morgan Stanley economists expect the deflation trend to continue through at least the midway point of next year due in part to strengthened supply chains, a projection that jives with stabilization tracked by the New York Fed’s Global Supply Chain Pressure Index.

In fact, deflation may remain so strong, it unwinds much of overall inflation all on its own

I’ve been posting (and thinking) a lot about audiences lately (and how to talk with them)

So this Seth Godin post struck my fancy. There are many ways to group an audience, and none of them result in a perfect crossmatch of interests, aspirations, and needs across its population.

And always remember:

We are all weird, and that’s okay.

Kurt Vonnegut predicted that we would have to invent our own tribes because we’ve lost that tribal cohesion in industrialized culture.

-Dr. Mark Plotkin

Some brands step into the tribal vacuum for their fans (CrossFit, modern Politics, wellness factions, etc.).

The first step is having the courage to not message to everyone. Tribes (for better or worse) are built in part on “us vs. them” positioning.

That’s the thing about audiences, they never fit neatly into one box or another. In different contexts, in different situations, they want different things and have different priorities.

via Sounds Profitable

Chatbots are hot like Hansel (again)

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, is working on an open platform that will allow users to create their own chatbots, as the company races to catch up in generative artificial intelligence (AI) amid fierce competition that kicked off with last year’s launch of ChatGPT.

The “bot development platform” will be launched as a public beta by the end of the month

via South China Morning Post