WHEN THE SWEET SPOT JUST WON'T DO

Chances are, you were at the Ad Club event yesterday at noon with Ian Crockett, President of the OC Ad Club, and Owner of Hunter Barth. It was standing room only.

Ian said something that really stuck to me: "Best thing for pitching to a new client is to know their business- best way to do that is follow the money."

Follow the money.

Today I noticed that Seth points out on his blog that sometimes our natural tendencies in business- that is to focus on what makes your business the most money.. i.e. "The Sweet Spot" might not always be the best idea.



"Over time, you'll start to develop slight variations on your sweetspot. If one kind of martini is good, then a few are even better. Pancake houses start selling Swedish, German and even Brazilian pancakes. Insurance companies start selling a dozen different variations on whole life."

"Clusters work because people are likely to be drawn to a crowd. They also work because making a good, better, best comparison gives us the confidence to go ahead and buy something. "

"Clusters have a few problems. The first is that you inevitably leave people out. If your restaurant serves nothing but spicy food, then the odd duck who came with a group and doesn't like spicy food is going to go away unhappy."

"And most of all, clusters make it hard to develop new sweetspots. First-class long-haul travel was a great sweetspot for Pan Am, but when the world changed, they got hammered."



I have a question for you, Chappy:

When is it a good idea to diversify or fragment a brand, and when is it best to be "all in one place"?