One of the most powerful things you can do when you’re crafting a message is to frame your own position as the norm, and all others as substandard. It does not work to frame your position as above average, because the human animal is at heart totally okay with average. Average means you did enough to get by, and you are now allowed to turn your attention to things you like more. Why bust your ass/spend more money/devote hundreds of hours when half the effort gets nearly the same result?
No, for a communications specialist, it’s far better to establish yourself as the market norm, as opposed to something meant for the elite. You can only get away with “elite” positioning if you’re going to charge your smaller audience enough to make up for it being… well, smaller.
In conjunction with this, I’ve always been frustrated with game marketing, because it almost always goes for the audience WE ALREADY HAVE, and not the much larger pool of people who think our products aren’t for them… even though behaviorally, our products would fit like a glove.
So of course I was thrilled when I read about the presentation at DICE that basically said, y’all, by making games for “gamers,” we’re limiting ourselves. People who watch TV aren’t “TV watchers.” Instead of an assumption of homogeny, in television the starting assumption is that the audience consists of multiple groups.
It’s so simple that I feel decidedly below average for not harping on this point years ago. I can’t pick out one quote, so just read the second half of the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/arts/television/25video.html