The Fan-Demand Adjacency Test
Turn proven audience enthusiasm into a credible adjacent offer
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 92%
Start with evidence that an audience already cares intensely, then test whether that enthusiasm can transfer to a related offer. Cowell describes noticing that wrestling fans rapidly filled a stadium and bought many kinds of merchandise, which suggested they might also buy an album featuring the wrestlers. He also listened to telesales staff who heard record shops asking for a song performed on television. The mechanism combines audience intensity, offer fit, and frontline demand signals. It is not enough to attach a famous name to anything: the proposed product must make sense to the audience and meet a serious quality bar. A small test then reveals whether the observed enthusiasm actually crosses into the new category.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01Existing fan behavior is stronger evidence than internal convention
- 02The adjacent offer must fit what the audience already values
- 03Distribution advantage does not excuse a weak product
- 04Frontline demand signals deserve attention
How to run it
- 1
Find concentrated enthusiasm
Look for measurable behavior showing that an audience acts, buys, attends, or repeatedly asks for more.
Pro tip Behavior is stronger evidence than compliments.
- 2
Map adjacent demand
Identify related categories the audience already buys and the reason those purchases fit its identity or interests.
Watch out Do not assume enthusiasm transfers to an unrelated offer.
- 3
Listen at the front line
Ask sales, support, retail, or community staff what customers are requesting before executives filter the signal.
Pro tip Make demand reporting a regular question, not a one-off survey.
- 4
Protect product quality
Make the adjacent offer credible on its own terms rather than relying solely on audience loyalty.
Watch out A poor product can spend trust that took years to build.
- 5
Run a bounded test
Launch at limited scale, compare actual uptake with the demand thesis, and expand only if behavior confirms the fit.
Pro tip Define the success threshold before launch.
In the wild
After hearing that American wrestlers had sold out Wembley Stadium rapidly and that their fans bought many branded products, Cowell proposed an album featuring the wrestlers. Despite internal resistance, he and Pete Waterman made it as a serious record rather than a disposable novelty.
→ Cowell says the album sold millions of copies and reached number one in many countries.
Telesales staff told Cowell that record shops were calling about a song performed on the television series Soldier Soldier. He treated those requests as evidence of demand and pursued Robson Green and Jerome Flynn to record it.
→ Cowell says the resulting act became one of the UK's biggest sellers for two years.
Common mistakes
Starting with executive taste
Internal convention can hide demand that customers and frontline staff are already demonstrating.
Licensing without product fit
A recognizable audience or personality does not make every adjacent product credible.
Is it for you?
Best for
Brands or creators with a visible, enthusiastic audience and permission to serve it in a related category.
Not ideal for
Cold markets with no observable demand or offers that depend on exploiting fan loyalty.
From the transcript
“I always just want to know what's going on every day.”
From the episode
Simon Cowell Opens Up About His Heartbreaking Loss, "losing them was the hardest thing that happened to me"!