In the five years that this blog has been alive and active, I have had many different people visiting, reading and  sharing. Over time, I have come to divide these into two categories. The wheat and the chaff.

There are some that click through to most of the articles, irrespective of the presentation when it is shared. The wheat.

And there are others that click through only when the shared link has a picture or a video associated, or has a title that captures something that is viral at that moment. The chaff.

The chaff is three to five times the size of the wheat.

This is true about most products out in the market. There are some that buy the product irrespective of whether there is a sale, something free on purchase, etc. And others that need these additional efforts to be enticed to try the product.

The mistake that most marketers make is to design strategies to attract more of the chaff. Any change in the product design and features in this quest and there is a good chance the wheat might be lost.

As Seth Godin often says, the quest of an artist is to build a tribe, a tribe that appreciates and consumes the product irrespective of the frills attached. A tribe that respects the core offering.

This doesn't mean there shouldn't be frills attached. They are needed every now and then to attract the chaff, of which some might turn into wheat. But the product must not change to pander to the chaff. That marks the death of the product.