The myth of “lines”.
As everyone interprets things differently, the myth of a brand pushing the limits, or toeing the line, is problematic.
Everyone interacting with your brand has different limitations and acceptance levels. Therefore, toeing the line usually means crossing it for a significant percentage of your customer base.
When Eric Schmidt recently said that “Google is willing to go right up to the line of being creepy”, what he meant, intentionally or not, was “Google is willing to creep the hell out of a set percentage of our users”.
There’s no clear definition of what that percentage is. 10%? 20? 50? The ‘line’ is unclear, but it could be anything less than 50+%, logically.
Toeing the line means alienating a minority of users. And we live in the ultimate age of the vocal minority. Any group, when angry enough, can fake movement status.
You don’t push boundaries. You cross them by degrees. If your strategy doesn’t address the consequences of crossing a boundary (this could be as simple as WANTING controversy) then you haven’t actually thought it through. You’re still thinking of your market and audience as one collective entity, rather than a social entity held together by weak ties.
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