Audience, Please! Business Lessons through Children's Books.
The Cat in the Hat children's book by Dr. Seuss can teach us a valuable business lesson about audience. As entrepreneurs we must always be focused on our audience.
Who buys your stuff?
Really, do you know?
Can you pick your buying client out in the line at the grocery store?
In the classic book, The Cat in the Hat, the cat knows exactly who his audience is---bored young children!
You may recall in the book two small children peering out their living room window at a deluge of rain. "The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house all that cold, cold wet day...How I wish we had something to do."
The children sit and sit and sit waiting for the rain to stop.
If a cat, prowling outside in the pouring rain, wants to go inside a warm house, who should he choose?
-A nice grandmother? No. She'll say, "Poor kitty" and place a bowl of milk outside!
-A 25 year-old, stay-at-home dad? No. He's too busy changing diapers and preparing pizza for lunch.
-A mompreneur in her thirties? Nope.
Bored children who need excitement definitely let a wet kitty inside for some fun and food. The Cat in the Hat knows his audience acutely.
He studied what they want. He prepared---he says, "I know some good games we could play...a lot of good tricks...as I stand on a ball...I can hold up the fish! And a little toy ship, and some milk on a dish!"
The Cat in the Hat knows what gets the kids' attention. He is a visual smorgasbord---fans, trays, umbrellas, and cakes. He knows his audience---it's how he survives.
This is how our businesses survive. We figure out our clients-where they live, their age, their sex, what they read, and what they watch.
When the Cat's impending boot from the house seems imminent, he pulls more tricks from his hat. "I will not go away I do not wish to go. And so---I will show you another good game that I know!"
He brings in Thing One and Thing Two. Because, sometimes, you just need a little help in persuading your clients.
The fish reminds the children constantly about the fact that the cat should not be there. The Cat has so completely possessed his audience though---the children pay no attention to little fishy. They want what Cat is giving them.
Do you know how your clients meow?