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Don't market your meeting like a durian

So there's this fruit, called the durian, that, while it literally stinks, is much beloved by many Thais and Malaysians. According to Seth Godin, there's a guy who spent decades trying to come up with an unstinky version of the fruit, the thought being that all those people who currently don't buy it would if it didn't stink. But, says Seth,


    Non-durian eaters don't have a 'durian problem'. They aren't standing by, fruitless, impatiently waiting for Songpol Somsri to figure out how to make a stinkless one. Nope. They've got cantaloupes and kiwis and all manner of other fruits to keep them busy.


    The feedback you get from non-consumers is rarely useful, because the objection they give is the reason they don't buy from you, not the thing that will cause them to affirmatively choose you.



So, who do you listen to when marketing your meetings? Its rabid fans, or those who have shown no interest in it before? I'd go with the former, and work hard to intensify whatever it is about the meeting that makes its fans so fanatical, rather than try to entice those who may have more of an interest in the meetings' equivalent of cantaloupes.

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