Every service wants to be everyone’s favourite. But what the makers are working towards is being favoured. Or popular. There is a minute but significant distinction between those two.
It is easy to market something subjective, which is what the latter is. “Best…”. “Most liked…”. “Hottest…”. How often do we hear those words in advertisements? The former, on the other hand, is binary. Objective. You are either someone’s favourite, or you are not. More often than not, people won’t know what their favourite something is. Ask someone for their favourite movie or a book, and she can’t put her finger on one.
Being a favourite is also singular. What point is being just one person’s favourite? You can’t market that. Of course, as long as the someone in question is not famous.
I wonder if seeking to be someone’s favourite is more satisfying than trying to be popular to everyone.
Seth Godin made this observation in one of his latest posts. Well, it’s not about satisfaction but the ease of selling.