Kate Reid wasn’t expecting people to drive across town to wait in long lines when she first started rolling croissants in her tiny Elwood bakery. She wasn’t making pastries for everyone—just for the kind of people who believed and valued what she believes. Everything could have changed when she moved to her-state-of-the-art bakery in Fitzroy. But Kate built Lune for resonance, not reach. The success of her second store, which opens in the city next week, will be not be dependent on convincing most people to come. Kate’s croissants are not for everyone.

Many of the ideas we have grown up with only succeeded at scale. In the past businesses talked about cornering the market as if there was only one market. When production and marketing costs were prohibitive, that market had to be most people. While many businesses need millions of customers to thrive, most businesses don’t. And yet we still market as if we’re trying to reach every single person who happens to be passing by.

Reach does not always result in resonance. Resonance is what you’re aiming for.

You don’t need everyone. You just need the right people.

Who are your right people? Are you marketing to everyone or just to them?

Image by Andrew Xu