Surprisingly The Same

You don’t claim to love good hamburgers and eat at McDonald’s.

Yet people who claim to love coffee drink Starbucks.

It is not love of the individual product that makes them eat and drink. It is love of the consistent experience. The uniformity of consumption. They love the lack of surprise. They revel in the safety of the mediocre and consistent.

Levis. Starbucks. Nike. McDonald’s. CocaCola. This isn’t quality that people are buying. It’s consistency.

Once you have convinced your audience that your product is unsurprising, you no longer have the ability to surprise your audience AND keep the audience you have.