You wouldn’t buy a luxury car at a grocery store, or would you? That is a trick question. For most of us, we would respond with a resounding, “no.” The reality is that the grocery store cannot support the car dealership concept, and vice versa. When we operate outside of our market or target area, we find ourselves holding fast to a vision that was not intended for us, or our audience of choice.
Because the luxury car understands its value and worth, it won’t minimize itself to being sold in a place that holds such little value. As a result, it recognizes that it must operate in a place where its value can be nurtured and received appropriately.
For the entrepreneur, the same concept is true. If we entertain ideas and people in spaces that do not understand our vision, then we will be like the car salesman, trying to sell a luxury car in a grocery store model. The idea is this - it does not fit our intended market or audience. Sure, it is innovative, but is being innovative enough to successfully reach our audience when that which we are producing is not designed with them in mind.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word, vision means “the faculty or state of being able to see.” It is not what we don't see that blinds us, but that which we do see that confines us. Think about it. How many times are we so focused on what we see that we begin to practically live out our lives by adding or subtracting when necessary to make sense of it all?
Sure, we do all these things, and in the end, we ponder the results of our efforts. For some, we can celebrate our successes, but for most, we find ourselves, just doing, but never intentionally acting to produce results.
We become blinded by the idea of our vision, so much so, that we grasp any and everything that has the look or tangible feel of success. If we desire not to mirror the car salesman in the grocery store model, then we have to be intentional about how we reach our audience. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in a market that cannot support our vision, and one that will, ultimately, lessen our value. In knowing this, we must consciously evaluate our marketing strategies by asking ourselves the question, How can we market if we first don’t understand whom we are marketing to?
The reality is, we cannot.
