What does it actually mean when we say: the customer is always right?

It doesn’t necessarily mean our product is bad, or irrelevant. It simply means that they have a right to form and voice their opinion.

And to make their own decision. Without us interfering.

I recently read a book “Mr Wilder & Me”, about a lesser known episode in the career of Billy Wilder.

To those of you who may not know, he’s the one who made, among other, “Some Like It Hot” and “The Apartment”.

He’s best known by those two films, maybe one or two more. And that’s the thing.

Mr Wilder wrote and directed over 20 movies, but he was usually associated with the aforementioned two…

Bummer.

In the book, there’s a scene in a restaurant when many guests approaach Billy and thank him, saying how his movies changed their life.

But it’s usually the same two movies. He accepts the compliments gracefully, yet unleashes his irritation once they leave his table.

I’m sure that he felt like this a lot of the time.

And there’s a lesson here for all of us.

Marketing is not movie-making, and there’s no option of appreciating a piece of content in retrospect.

I mean, we could, but the purpose of marketing is not an esthetic one. Esthetics is just a piece of the puzzle.

Marketing’s purpose is to communicate a message, not simple be pretty or clever.

So, the worst thing a business can do is get 🔹️too attached🔹️ to its content, and lament on why the audience doesn’t care about it.

The audience decides, ultimately. The sooner we accept it, the better.
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At the time, the audience decided that those two films of Billy Wilder resonated the most with them.

However, he has all the centuries for his oeuvre to be revisited and re-appreciated.

Time works in his favor.

He’s now considered one of the best writer-directors of cinema ( and I personally consider “The Apartment” to be the best picture ever made in Hollywood).

But…

Marketing doesn’t have that luxury of time.

It simply needs to work out within a much shorter scale.

Maybe not a few months.
But certainly not a few decades.

Don’t get to attached to your marketing plan and strategy, no matter how “good” or “high-quality” it is.

It’s not about that.
It’s about your audience and their right to make the pick.

However unpleasant we might feel about it.