“The Field of Dreams” was a movie from 1989 that made the line “If you build it, they will come” famous. It is a beautiful line. There’s only one problem – it is almost never true.
This is a hard lesson for most people to grasp. It certainly was the case for me. But, building a product alone doesn’t guarantee success. Even a product as irresistible, in hindsight, as Facebook, had some savvy marketing behind it when it launched. And, we call the most successful books “best-selling,” not best-written.
Products rarely sell themselves. Perhaps one product in a million manages that. They almost, always, need a story. It is generally too late if you are stuck crafting a story after the product is made. So much better to build the product and the story together. In the long run, the product is the strongest part of the marketing. In the short run, you need to build a story that makes the product desirable in a manner that is consistent to what it is really about.
Don’t fall for the “Field of Dreams” fallacy. Don’t build it and wait for them to come.
Plan for them to come. Tell a story. Make them come.
A Learning a Day 