Understanding your audience, AKA your Ideal Client, and catering to that audience is critical to effective market.
Yet far too many businesses aim for a much wider target. And in their eager pursuit of “leaving nothing on the table” wind up wasting time, effort and money.
These businesses (perhaps yours included?) have forgotten marketing’s Cardinal Rule, which I express in a variation of a classic quote…

“You can’t sell to all the people, all the time. You can only sell to some of the people, some of the time.”

NOFX, a little punk band founded in Los Angeles some three decades ago, realized the importance of marketing’s Cardinal Rule very early on in their existence. And that incredibly savvy insight helped them fashion a career that lasted far longer than anyone, the band members included, ever expected.

SoCal Punk Band NOFX’s Unlikely Path to Financial Success

Stalwarts of the pop-punk music scene, NOFX formed in the mid ‘80s and have since released 13 albums, mounted countless national + international tours (at least one per year over that last 30+ years), produced a television series, Back Stage Passport, for Fuse TV, and recently released a hilarious + poignant autobiography, The Hepatitis Bathtub, chronicling their long strange trip through the music biz.
The band managed to do all of this WITHOUT… Signing to a major record label; cooperating with the press or conducting formal PR of any kind; releasing singles on commercial radio; or submitting videos to MTV.
And the despite not “playing the music industry game,” NOFX members haven’t held day jobs since 1991. Yup, the NOFX crew has solely supported themselves off the band’s proceeds for 25 years. And some years band members have earned six figure incomes.
In short, NOFX has succeeded in the music business, a cutthroat industry to say the least, entirely on their own terms. But there’s a method to their seeming madness…

Leaving Money on the Table, At Least in the Short Term

Eschewing wider distribution and broader promotion, the NOFX sacrificed potential financial gains. At least in the short term.
With the alt-rock music scene exploded in the mid ‘90s, NOFX saw their Punk Rock music scene peers hop aboard the mainstream music gravy train…

Boarding the Alt-Rock Explosion Bandwagon: Rewards + Perils

Bands like the Offspring, Bad Religion and Rancid signed to major record labels, promoted singles on major rock radio (in some cases scoring alternative rock chart “hit singles.”), and contributed big budget videos to MTV.
And these moves earned the bands sizable financial gains and garnered a new, broader “mainstream music” audience.
What those bands may or may not have realized is these maneuvers, however fruitful, alienated their original fan base… Punk Rock has a strict ethos. It disdains profit chasing, mainstream media pandering and seemingly corporate driven “artists.”
Now you might think: “Hey, who cares? The Offspring, Bad Religion and Rancid are in the money now!” Well, truth be told they were in the money…for a moment. And that moment passed…

Mainstream Music Fans Live on Fickle Puppet Strings

The mainstream music industry is dominated by “taste-makers,” many of whom are really just record company marketing executives. They glom onto the “latest trend” and in turn inform mainstream audiences (most of whom are content to flip on the radio and sing along to the latest “hit single”) by programing radio, MTV and other music outlets with what’s “hot” right now. Meanwhile what’s “hot” right now is constantly changing.
Punk Rock fans, on the other hand, follow the music they love and worship the bands who make that music. Changing trends, taste-makers and the like are completely irrelevant to the Punk Rock fan base.
So when the crazy alt-rock fervor died down, the Offspring, Bad Religion and Rancid were dropped from their major label contracts. Their mainstream radio promotion disappeared. And their videos vanished from MTV.
Meanwhile, their original fan based now despised them for violating the Punk Rock ethos and “selling out” to corporate interests.
These bands had to start over, rebuilding the fan base with Punks who were either previously unfamiliar with their music or new to the scene. In effect, they were back to square one.

NOFX Maintained Their Punk Rock Ethos

On the flipside, NOFX never wavered from their core ideals, despite a multitude of major label enticements. And the band is still going STRONG. They may not be making millions. But they’re certainly making a conformable living far outside the confines of a 9-5 job. And living their dreams as professional musicians, making records and touring the world.

The Small Business Marketing Takeaway

I said it above, but it bears repeating…

“You can’t sell all of the people, all of the time. You can only sell some of the people, some of the time.”

In other words, NOFX identified their niche, and nurtured that niche. They didn’t target a broader audience, unlike many of their peers, and sticking to with their core fan-base managed to cultivate a 30+ year career in an industry that chews up artists in a mere fraction of that time frame.
Want to foster NOFX-type longevity in your business? Take a page from their playbook… Narrow your niche, target your ideal client, and sharpen your aim. It’s the most winning formula for long terms success.

Struggling to Gain Traction With Your Marketing?

It could be that you haven’t quite narrowed you niche enough… Swing by my Google+ page and share your trials and tribulations. Let’s see if we can “target” your problem ;–)