This may seem like an odd post from a creative strategy team but humor us for a second. We think we have a point somewhere in here.
Like 20.9 million* other people we were tuned in to the Golden Globes last night. Well at least until 10:00 then we had to change channels and watch House of Lies, Episodes and the 11:00 showing of Shameless (#redeyesandsleepy). Anyhoo, for us The Globes viewing started at 6:00 for the red carpet arrivals being shown on (pick a celebrity obsessed channel of your choice). Once on the carpet and within camera shot we chatted about our favorites and our our not so favorites and thanks to the hype and build-up of the announcers we eagerly anticipated the arrivals of certain A-listers who were "sure to shine", to quote said announcers. One of those individuals was The Julia Roberts. America's sweetheart. A red-carpet favorite. She was going to stop the show. Everyone else should hide in shame once she showed up. Will she go for color, a neutral, hair up, hair down, her trade marked toned down glamour, or (adj) blah, (adj) blah, (adj) blah.And then the big moment and. . .she was simply. . . blah! Well blah by standards set for her. She didn't live up to the hype. Hype that was projected onto her. You could hear the collective womp, womp, #fashionfail. She let us all down. We expected more. We wanted a refund. The dress aged her. The hair was too matronly. But fast forward a few hours later and we have different perspective. Julia didn't let us down. She stayed true to Julia and for that we applaud her. Guess what? She IS a woman of a certain age. She highlighted some features and covered the rest. It happens! Same thing in the product world. There comes a time when a product has to simply be what it is. Despite the expectations and what a consumer thinks is best. Deliver what works for you. It may piss off the masses but your true fans will be happy. Seth Godin sums it up nicely in this post. Julia's dress may not have been a top pick for us but who are we to decided if that was truly her best or not.