In writing about the experience economy, there is some danger that I’m heard to be saying that you should create novel experiences at all costs, but somewhat counterintuitively, you probably need to stay in your box.
People often talk about ‘thinking outside of the box’. I’m not talking about that.
The people you bring your work to want to know what it rhymes with, what category it fits in, what they’re supposed to compare it to.
Please put it in a container for us, they say. We call that container “genre.”
Seth Godin, The Practice.
If you’re a lawyer, and you arrive dressed like Constable Ken, nobody’s going to know what to do with that. Lawyers don’t wear shiny red, Vegas-style police uniforms. It’s simply not in the “lawyer box”, it’s not going to work.
Even these Murder Mystery uniforms push right up against the edge of the box for corporate client meetings, but because they’re still in-the-box of entertainment we get away with them. Not only do we get away with them, they make us really memorable in a sea of suits and chinos.
They work because they’re in the box of our genre, and we get leverage because we’re right up at the limits of the genre. Very few other team building providers are going to look like this. That makes us memorable.
A while ago I wrote about some accountants who sing happy birthday. It works because sending a voicenote is in the box of what an accountant might do. It works because wishing a client happy birthday is in the box of what an accountant might do. And singing – well that’s right up against the edge, and that’s where the leverage is.
And so you need to think about your genre, and what’s inside the box. Then think about all the things you can get away with. There will be lots. So many you’ll never be able to list them all.
And then find the edges, and get right up close because that’s where you can be unique. But stay in your genre.
Not generic, which is boring, but genre, which gives your audience a clue as to what this work is about.
What’s the format? What should it cost? What does it remind me of?
Seth Godin, The Practice.