When Fifty Shades Of Grey
became super popular
(this was long after it was written),
Romance Writers and Publishers
asked themselves,
“What type of story
will this huge group of readers
read next?”
I made a guess.
A publisher made
the same guess.
We teamed up
and released a series
(product).
We were wrong.
The readers went
in a different direction.
But if we had been right,
we would have
taken the ‘easy’ route
to launching a popular product.
“The most direct way
to become popular
is to serve the audience
that made the last thing popular.
By that definition,
popular almost always means
‘not better.’
It simply means that
you found a large group
and gave them
what they wanted.”
And there’s nothing
wrong with that strategy.
It works
if you can accurately predict
what these customers want next.
The ‘easiest’ way
to release a popular product/service
is to predict
what the customer base
of the current popular product/service
will want next.