Some marketers treat us as kind of dumb.
For example in the way they try to persuade us by hiding their cons and exaggerating their pros (if not downright inventing some).
Let’s call them the “selfish marketers”.
The fascinating part is how much effort selfish marketers invest into this. They spend huge resources on inventing promises that sound irresistible or stories that create buzz – not to mention all the money they throw towards marketing agencies who give them more of that.
By doing that, they try to decorate a product they don’t trust in themselves to be good enough if they told us the truth.
In my experience, your effort is better spent in telling a true story and making it work. That involves refining your product so that you can actually trust it to be good. It also involves listening closely to what your customers actually want (and need). It doesn’t stop with the quest for clarity to find the words that make your customers see what you see.
The selfish marketer starts from building something and puts all their effort in crafting a story on top of that something.
The honest marketer starts with empathy, uncovers what matters to the customers, builds a special thing that delivers exactly that … And then they tell a true story about it … using words they trust in and believe, themselves.
The best products are those that customers love even more when they know the complete truth. They are not irresistible because the promise sounds irresistible but because it is. And so, your customers support you in creating the buzz.
What’s a product where that’s the case for you?