I was watching the NBA All-Star game this weekend, and I found myself reminiscing about some of the All-Star games I used to watch years ago when I was much younger. These were back in the days of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Isaiah Thomas. As I reflected fondly on these memories, I watched this current game with honestly a bit of frustration. Both teams had scored as many points by halftime as most full regulation games. While these guys are amazingly talented athletes, it was painfully obvious that there was no defense in either team’s play books for this game. I found myself watching a highlight reel for dunks and half-court shots. I am a real fundamentals kind of guy. I love to watch teams buckle down and play hard gritty defense. I believe in basketball, and in most sports, good defense wins games. So for me, it is really hard to watch a game of any kind (even one that doesn’t count) that doesn’t have good sound defense.

And here lies the problem. While the NBA would love to have me as a viewer, the All-Star game is not really designed to appeal to me. The players want to have a fun time where they can do things they cannot normally do in a real game. And most fans want to see these highlight reel moments as well. It can create quite an electric environment. So in the end, players want to have fun, coaches want to have fun, executives want to engage as many people as possible, and advertisers want to make money. I want to see defense, not the slam dunk contest.

As with most everything in life, you can’t please everyone, which means you have to pick your audience. The NBA players, coaches, etc. have to decide what kind of game they want to play in order to appease and engage a certain group of people. You have to do the same thing with your business every day. Who is your audience? For some of us, this answer is really simple. For others, maybe not so much. How seriously have you even thought about who your audience is or how to reach them? Are you trying to reach people who love a fast pace, run and gun kind of game or are you more interested in connecting with the folks who love a good defensive battle? Neither approach is particularly wrong. What is wrong is not knowing. Figure it out. Who is your audience? If you don’t know, let The High Road Agency help you figure it out.