Source: Getty
A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it.
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It’s me… hi! (And Happy Taylor Swift at Gillette Stadium Weekend to all who celebrate.)
While in Maine last week, I notice a new, free magazine in a local grocery store.
The title: Beer & Weed.
The subject: Well… beer. And weed (which is legal in Maine).
To be clear, I’m not the target audience for the magazine. I am part of neither the craft beer nor the cannabis dispensary communities—in Maine or anywhere.
But something about the mashup delights me.
Also there is the cover story: A Mother’s Day feature about moms who brew craft beer and moms who own cannabis dispensaries.
The cover reads, “Mom’s the Boss,” subtitled “Having and Raising Children while Brewing and Growing.” It features a photo of a Mom with her two adorable babies. (You can see the issue here.)
While I am hunting in the aisles of the grocery store (unfamiliar layout—always a bit of an adventure), I have time to think of a better headline. Maybe instead of “Mom’s the Boss” we go with “Whine, Women, and Bong.”
So I applied for the job of Beer & Weed‘s Head of Content. And I work there now.
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Just kidding about that last part.
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Now I’m waiting to check out. The store is packed. I eyeball the shortest line and the shoppers who have the fewest items. And who don’t look like they’ll be trouble.
I’m 6 carts away from the register.
What is it exactly that delights me about this particular magazine?
➡️ EXTREME FOCUS IS OUR FRIEND.
Beer. Weed. Full stop.
No bourbon. No whiskey. No cigars. Zero vaping. The name of the magazine gives away its sole focus. Tell your audience exactly what your product or service is… and what it’s not.
We tend to go too broad in Marketing. We want to attract as big an audience as we can get, when really we should delight the smallest audience. We should aim to tell the smallest stories.
>> Saying no is an underused skill: What don’t you talk about? is as important a question to answer as what you do talk about.
I’m inching closer to the cash register.
➡️ A CLEAR NICHE.
Wouldn’t it be extreme-er focus if Beer & Weed focused on one or the other? Just beer? Just weed?
No.
The mashup is what creates the specificity—and the smaller audience.
It turns out that the craft beer and cannabis communities share a kind of fan-DNA: Fans of one are often fans of the other. (And the hops in beer is a genetic cousin of cannabis.)
In the age of content abundance and AI, tap into a spin/angle/point of view that others can’t replicate in quite the same way.
I am close enough to observe the check-out person. I’m grateful he doesn’t appear to be overly chatty. I’m in a hurry.
➡️ CLEAR BESTS CLEVER.
I love wordplay. I live for clever. But don’t sacrifice clarity—especially in big, at-a-glance places: Titles. Navigation bars. Calls to action. Landing pages.
>> Ditch the abstract and artful in the places where you need to convey a quick hit of information.
I just realized I’m in the 10 items on less line. Ugh. It’s too late to bail.
➡️ WRITING IS RHYTHM. Repetition creates rhythm. The repetition of that double ee in beer and weed is subtle but solid.
It doesn’t rhyme. But it has a kind of percussion.
Great writing has beats, notes, pauses, full stops.
Words are sounds you hear in your head. Sentences thrum and vibrate to make the paragraph; the paragraphs make the whole page sing.
A writer hears that music in their head. A writer chooses to put this phrase before that one to make the melody just so.
I turn over that double ee in beer and weed in my head. It’s simple. It’s nice.
Craft & Cannabis wouldn’t make music; it sounds like something AI would write when you prompt it to include alliteration.
I’m at the checkout. Welp, might as well own it.
“I have 17 items,” I blurt out to the cashier. I hate people like me. Turns out **I** am the problem.
“It’s OK,” he says. Unfazed.
The bagger tosses the free magazine in with my groceries. He doesn’t give it a second thought.
Unlike me. And now, I hope, you. 😃