Line Up with Your People

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If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time now, you know that I enjoy Seth Godin. Today he talks about the phenomenon of Alignment:

A perfect relationship: I want your company to help me, and your company wants to help me. We're both focused on helping the same person.
The Apple relationship: I want Apple to be cool. Apple wants to be cool. That's why there's little pushback on pricing or obsolence or disappointing developers.

How does this work in speaking? If you provide alignment between what you're trying to say and what you audience wants to hear then the relationship will be long and productive. But if you're constantly fighting against what your audience wants to hear then things won't last very long.

Compare these to the ultimately doomed relationships (if not doomed, then tense) in which goals don't align, relationships where the brand took advantage of an opening but then grows out of the initial deal and wants to change it:
The hip designer relationship: I want the new thing no one else has yet. You want to be around for years.

What are you trying to say to your audience? Are they complicit in the process or are you fighting against them at every step? Who needs to change in this relationship?