Getting Your Marketing Strategy Past the Founder Filter

Marketing Shenanigans (#025)

Getting a founder to approve a marketing strategy? Easier said than done.

Here’s the thing: Almost every founder wants a hand in marketing—and honestly, that’s fair. Marketing is where brands make their money. But here’s the challenge: Founders are too close to their product.

To them, the solution seems obvious.

• This can lead to doubling down on strategies that aren’t moving the needle.

• Or outright dismissing new ideas that could open the door to real growth.

So, if your last three pitches were shut down, here’s a framework to help guide the conversation—and challenge their perspective in a productive way:

1️⃣ Ask about the origin story.

• How did they first discover the problem their product is solving?

• What was the first thing they searched for to see if a solution existed?

2️⃣ Bring in real-world feedback.

• Have you conducted surveys or asked current customers what problem your product solves for them?

• If yes, do their answers match the messaging you’re using?

3️⃣ Frame the investment.

• How much are they willing to spend to educate a new audience—or get loyal customers to buy again?

• Does repositioning the product have the potential to reach a new audience and add more perceived value for current customers?

The goal isn’t to criticize—it’s to challenge your founder to think like a consumer.

Here’s the catch: Thinking like a consumer means forgetting everything you know about the product, which is a tall order if you invented it. Founders instinctively believe people buy their products for the same reasons they created them.

But here’s the truth:

• Consumers might not resonate with the problem the way the founder does.

• Or they do resonate but need to see it framed in a way that feels more relevant to them.

When founders start seeing the world through their customers’ eyes, they open up to fresh strategies. And that’s when the magic happens.

The Takeaway

This framework is designed to nudge founders toward a consumer-first perspective. When that shift happens, they’re far more likely to approve innovative ideas—and take a bet on the future.

Founders are close to their products, sometimes too close. Help them see things through their audience’s lens, and you’ll have a much easier time getting your strategy approved.

Cheers,

Teddy

Teddy Giard

In case you don’t already know, my name is Teddy, and I operate a firm that specializes in marketing strategies for outdoor brands. Our approach is simple: align your product development timeline with your marketing production timeline; by doing so, we can own the distribution of our message and our products.

If you’d like to explore working together, feel free to fill out this form, and if we’re a good fit, we can schedule a discovery call. We ask this because we keep a fairly narrow target for whom we work, and we like to be as open about that on the front end as possible. After all, time is life’s most valuable resource.