---
title: You can't be for everyone. Put a stake in the ground.
description: Trying to serve everyone spreads your brand thin. Why growing companies need to put a stake in the ground, and how to choose who you're for.
---

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 October 4, 2026

# You can't be for everyone. Put a stake in the ground.

![Picture of Summer Hagens](https://authentically23.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Profile%20Photo%20with%20Background.jpg?width=50&name=Profile%20Photo%20with%20Background.jpg) By   Summer Hagens  ·   2 minute read

Ask a growing company who its customer is, and you'll often hear some version of "anyone who needs what we sell."

It sounds ambitious. In practice, it means marketing that tries to speak to everyone and connects with no one.

## How companies drift

It rarely happens on purpose. A company starts with a clear customer. Then a new kind of customer calls, and then another. Each one is good business, so you say yes.

A few years later, you're serving several industries. Your website tries to speak to all of them, and none of them feels like it was written just for them.

## Put a stake in the ground

Historically, putting a stake in the ground marked your claim. For a brand, it's a declaration. It's how you tell the world: this is who we are, this is who we're for, and this is what we believe.

A stake in the ground does three things:

- **It proclaims your purpose.** People know why you exist.
- **It unites your team.** Everyone knows who comes first.
- **It sets you apart.** You stop blending in with everyone else trying to serve everyone.

> Putting a stake in the ground isn't just about being seen. It's about being understood, felt and remembered.

## What it looks like in real life

A custom packaging company got its start serving coffee roasters. Over the years, coffee stayed its largest customer base. But as word spread, it added customers in other industries too, from pet food to cannabis to just about any business that needed specialty packaging.

It was all good business. It was also pulling the brand in many directions.

As the company prepared for its next stage of growth, leadership made a bold choice: go all in on coffee. They weren't turning away their other customers. They were focusing on the reason they started the business in the first place.

Then they narrowed it further. Some of their coffee customers had grown beyond what the company could offer, and that was a good thing. It meant they had helped those businesses grow. So they focused on the customer where they made the greatest impact: the small roaster building something from the ground up.

The decision shaped everything that followed: the purpose, the vision, the value proposition, the brand promise and even the values. Today, the company's content speaks directly to those roasters.

## Choosing first doesn't mean choosing only

Focusing on one customer doesn't mean closing the door on everyone else. Other customers are still welcome. They just aren't the ones you design every decision around.

The result is clarity. Your team knows who they're serving. Your customers recognize themselves in your message. And your budget works harder because it isn't split in several directions.

## How to choose where to put your stake

- **Go back to why you started.** Who did you set out to serve, and is that still true?
- **List who you serve today.** Be honest about who is actually buying, and who is most profitable to serve.
- **Find where you make the greatest impact.** Who do you serve better than anyone else? Who has outgrown you?
- **Look where you're going.** Choose the customer who fits the business you're building, not just the one you have.
- **Pick one to lead.** Others are welcome, but one customer shapes every decision.
- **Build everything around them.** Your message, website, content, service and even your culture.

## Why this is a leadership decision

This choice rarely happens on its own. Sales wants every deal. Product wants every new opportunity. Without someone who owns the brand and marketing strategy, the default is to keep saying yes to everyone.

That's one of the most valuable things a marketing leader does: make the hard choice, and help the whole company commit to it.

## A quick test

Ask three people on your team who your most important customer is. Do you get the same answer?

## The takeaway

In a crowded market, businesses that don't choose risk disappearing in the noise.

So, where will you put your stake?

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