Why Traditional Marketing Will Turn Your Startup Into a Garbage Fire

No one wants to buy something they don’t understand

When a brand new company launches a brand new type of product, that company faces a unique marketing challenge. The marketing messaging not only has to quickly sell the customer on the product, it has to first educate that customer on what the product is and exactly what problem it solves.

Traditional marketing methods often fail to do this.

Regardless, startups tend to fall in love with these methods, especially branding. When startups think marketing, they usually think Coke, Nike, or Apple — companies that have spent decades branding themselves as purveyors of aspirational products to multiple market segments.

But the reason why startups often fail at branding is that they lean on it way too early, and wind up skipping the entire education process. For an unknown product from an unknown company to achieve product-market fit, the marketing has to be far more educational.

The difference between branding and education

There are two scenes from the sitcom Silicon Valley that distinctly explain the difference between branding and education when marketing a new product.