The fan chasm

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How big is the gap between customer and die-hard fan? In other words, between engaging and loving, between attending and craving?

For World of Warcraft, it’s huge. It’s very difficult to spend just an hour or two. There’s a chasm between encounter and enjoyable experience. Tetris was oriented in precisely the other way–everyone who tried it instantly became almost as smart as an expert.

If you want to be an insider at the Four Seasons restaurant, you might have to go thirty times and spend $3,000 over time. There’s a barrier to becoming an insider.

For Star Trek, not so much. After one TV episode, you might not know a Tribble from a Romulan, but you’ve probably figured out the whole Vulcan thing. Much more approachable, much easier to fake your fanhood.

There are very few products, services or organizations that are simultaneously easily approachable and quite deep. That’s an opportunity for you if you can figure out how to be both, but choosing just one is a more likely scenario. So, which are you?