I think that we have a terrible misconception about popularity.

我认为我们对受欢迎度有严重的误解

I think that often we define popularity in a majoritarian way.

我们通常会以多数主义的方式去定义受欢迎度

We say that in order for something to be popular most people have to like it.

我们觉得某个东西要想受欢迎 它就一定要得到多数人的青睐

A majority of the population has to like it.

必须要有多数人喜欢才行

But think about this, if a book sells one million copies in a year it is a runaway best seller that by definition 99.5 percent of Americans did not buy.

但是想一下 如果一本书的年销量是一百万本 那它就绝对称不上是畅销书 因为99.5%的美国人没有买

The biggest movie of 2016, Rogue One, the Star Wars film, made enough money

2016年最出名的电影 《星球大战侠盗一号》大捞了一笔

for about 35 to 40 percent of American adults to have bought a ticket and seen it.

有35%到40%的美国成年人都买票看了

That means the vast majority of Americans did not see the most popular movie.

这也就意味着大多数美国人都没有看这部最受欢迎的影片

You could say the same for television.

电视也是一样

You could say the same for music that lots of things that we consider popular are not majoritarily popular at all

音乐也不例外 多数我们认为很受欢迎的东西并不是大多数人喜欢的

they aren’t mainstream by this old-fashioned definition.

根据这套老旧定义 它们并不是主流

Instead they are cults that culture itself is cults from top to bottom.

相反 它们只是人们的一种狂热 文化本身就是彻头彻尾的狂热

It is increasingly in this moment now where the mainstream has been completely shattered and has been totally niche-ified that culture is cults all the way down.

现在主流越发破碎和商业化 文化始终就是一种狂热

And I think that in thinking about this from a marketing standpoint and you’re thinking about your total addressable market,

如果从市场营销的角度来看待这个问题 那么你就是在看你的整个潜在市场

your total addressable market is not America, it’s not the world, it’s not any enormous group of people,

你的整个潜在市场不是美国 不是世界 也不是某一庞大的群体

your total addressable market is probably really, really small.

你的整个潜在市场可能很小很小

And rather than go big with the general message that you hope is going to embrace everybody,

不要想着取悦每个人

rather embrace the idea that the mainstream is dead, that it’s all cults and that you have to find your cult and hit them very, very clearly

你要知道没有主流一说 都是一种狂热而已 你得找到自己的狂热 然后很清晰很清晰地

with the message that is cultish that says you are special because the mainstream is wrong.

告诉他们 这是一种狂热 它表明你很特别 因为主流是错的

Remember, that is the definition of what cultish thinking is it’s a positive rebellion against an illegitimate mainstream.

记住 那就是狂热思想的定义 即对不合理主流的积极反抗

So in order for people to feel like a message is reaching them it helps for that message to tell them not only who they are but who they’re not,

所以为了让人们真正听进去某个信息 它不光得告诉大家他们是谁 还得告诉大家他们不是谁

how they are different, how they’re special and how the vast majority of people, how the amorphous mainstream doesn’t get them.

他们之间的区别是什么 有何特殊之处 以及为什么多数人 非主流都不理解他们

I sometimes talk about this online in terms of online marketing as the Tokyo example.

我在网上讲线上营销的时候以东京为例说过这个

I went to Tokyo two years ago and a friend was telling me about how awesome Tokyo is

两年前我去过东京 一个朋友告诉我东京有多棒

said “There’s this great bar that sells amazing Japanese whiskey and also vinyl records.”

他说“有一个特别好的酒吧 里面卖有日本威士忌和黑胶唱片”

And I was like, “What a strange idea for a place to only sell vinyl records and whiskey.”

我当时说“这个地方只卖威士忌和黑胶唱片 真奇怪啊”

And he said, “Yeah it does sound weird, but remember that Tokyo is a metro area of 35 million people

他说“没错 听起来是很奇怪 不过东京可是有着3500万人的大都市

so even if the store only applies to like 0.5 percent of the Tokyo metropolitan population it’s still an incredibly popular store.”

所以即便东京只有0.5%的人喜欢这家小店 那它也是超受欢迎的店”

So the Internet is Tokyo.

网络就相当于东京

The Internet is this infrastructure that is connecting billions and billions of people

网络可以把几十亿人连接在一起

and you don’t need to reach all of them all at once in order to make something that’s popular.

你无需打造所有人都喜欢的东西 才能让它受欢迎

In fact it makes much more sense to try to reach 0.2, 0.01 percent of them with a message that is really clear and very specific and very special

其实 只要能吸引到其中0.2% 0.01%的人 让他们接收到非常清晰 具体和特别的消息

and understand that even if I get this microscopic percentage of the total address from market to love what I’m doing, that is popularity.

要明白 即便我只能吸引到市场上这微小的一部分人 让他们喜欢我所做的事情 那就是受欢迎