Ron Johnson — the genius behind the Apple Store — was hired as CEO of JC Penney to grow the company. His plan: ditch the coupons and the loyal middle-aged, middle-income female shoppers who were actually buying things, and go upmarket to attract a younger, “sexier” demographic. He gutted beloved private-label brands with loyal followings and replaced them with new ones that meant nothing to the customers JCP already had.
He torched the loyal audience that was already there to chase a new audience that never showed up.
Sales and profits rapidly collapsed. Johnson was fired after just 17 months, his predecessor brought back in to salvage the train wreck, but the customers had already found a new favorite place to shop and the company fell into bankruptcy. Today — thirteen years later — JCPenney is bleeding $177 million a year and teetering on a second bankruptcy filing. All of it traceable back to 17 months of stupid.
Ron Johnson didn’t just hurt JCPenney — it broke a cardinal rule of business I’ve seen repeated over and over again: Abandon the loyal customers already buying by changing the “formula” to chase a new audience or a new “ideal” you think the current customers should want.
Bud Light would have saved itself a lot of grief by reviewing that case study before the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco. It’s the SAME mistake: a complete disregard for the existing customer base in pursuit of a shinier, more “sophisticated” audience — and when the backlash erupted, they abandoned Mulvaney too. They managed to alienate both sides simultaneously, which takes a special kind of talent. Sales dropped nearly 30%. Bud Light lost its position as the #1 beer in America — to Modelo, of all things — and has never recovered.
Both disasters trace back to the same core mistake: abandoning and disrespecting your core customer for fear of losing out on another audience you think is better.
This comes down to a core success principle in business: Pick a very specific target audience and in all ways — product, pricing, design, marketing, messaging — appeal ONLY to that customer and no one else.
The fear of criticism, the fear of losing a few opportunities, the fear of having any strong opinions at all kills your ability to gain traction in marketing. It’s safer to be vanilla. UNremarkable. Take NO risks. Ruffle NO feathers.
This fails two ways.
First, the only way to be completely free of criticism and “cancel culture” is to do nothing, say nothing and make no opinions known. Climb into a metaphorical pine box, bury yourself 6 feet under and wait patiently until nobody remembers your name. Make sure it’s an unmarked grave. Eventually, no haters — but also no social following, no leads, no customers, no revenue and no legacy.
Further, this ridiculous idea of managing such a pristine, “all inclusive” reputation where you offend no one and stay completely neutral so you don’t offend is naïve at best. It is NOT a worthy goal. It’s a participation trophy for cowards.
Haters aren’t a problem to be managed — they’re proof your marketing is WORKING.
Second, the misguided pursuit of universal appeal guts your ability to resonate deeply with any one audience. Instead of raving fans, you get casual browsers. You become the flat, roadkill squirrel in the road who couldn’t pick a direction.
One of the greatest lessons I learned about this was from Daymond John, who is a genius at building brands. He taught me the most successful rap artists knew how to use their HATERS, not just their fans. The ones who played it safe, avoided controversy, never poked the bear? Forgotten. Eminem’s “cold product.”
Every hater I’ve ever had online was a NON-buyer. People who never gave me a dime yet had a lot of opinions about me and my content. The notion that being less “me” and more palatable to them to win them over as a paying client is a fantasy – and IF I was able to get them as a client, they certainly wouldn’t stick around once they got in a room with me, so I couldn’t turn them into raving fans anyway.
You’re never going to appeal to everyone, so stop trying. Know who your core audience is and go all-in on them.
