Tone + Genre + Story + Universal Message = Target Audience
The first thing you decide is what story you want to tell, and the second thing to decide is who you want to tell it to. Really, it will make so many of your choices so much simpler.
You can’t please everyone, but you can please a lot of the same kind of people, including producers, who are very serious about making films that are easy to market.
Know who you’re talking to and make your decisions to appeal (no one is asking you to pander) to those people.