If people don’t assume your product is high-end, delaying the price reveal can be an unpleasant surprise. Startup founder Dwight in San Diego wrote in response to my post about strategically delaying the price reveal, but only if your brand is premium: “Any suggestions for getting to the point where customers expect to pay more?” For sure. And none of them involve raising your price first. Premium is earned through strong signals. Stack enough of them, and buyers walk (or click) in expecting...
2 days ago • 1 min read
In product innovation, speed-to-market now outperforms scale. A new Siemens report found that the consumer goods brands winning today aren’t the ones launching more products. Nope. They happen to be the ones launching products faster. Instead of betting on a giant portfolio, they ship a smaller, smarter version … then learn, tweak, and relaunch. That’s a lesson for every product maker, not just CPG giants. Don’t wait for perfection. Build your minimum WOW product (the simplest version that...
3 days ago • 1 min read
If buyers expect your product to be expensive, making them wait for the price can make them want it more. New research in the Journal of Consumer Research shows that when shoppers anticipate a premium product, delaying price disclosure boosts sales. The wait nudges their internal reference price upward, so the final number feels more justified. But if buyers expect “cheap,” hiding your price backfires. They assume it must be too high, and bounce. So how do YOU use this? For premium or novel...
4 days ago • 1 min read
You remember old phone numbers but not the client you called yesterday, because your brain lets Google do the storing. Here’s an oddity: I can easily recite the land-line numbers of childhood friends Mike, Randy, and Louis. I have not dialled those sequences, or really even thought of them in over four decades. They’re useless, obsolete information. But they are there. And then somehow I cannot recall my sister’s phone number, or even the prefix of the client number I called yesterday. That...
5 days ago • 1 min read
At this year’s IFA in Berlin, the smartest upgrade was not hardware. It was longevity. Samsung led with products like its Bespoke AI Dishwasher, promising years of software updates and smarter maintenance. Not shinier buttons or wilder new colors. That’s the real innovation: durability as reassurance. According to Tom’s Guide, WIRED, and NielsenIQ, buyers now rank ongoing support higher than next-gen specs. We’re sick of obsolescence. We want to know our investment won’t vanish when the next...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Too many choices can quietly kill your conversion rate. I’ve written plenty about how Costco increases sales by reducing choices. A new wave of research from UCLA Anderson Review and lseee.net shows that even three options in online retail can overwhelm shoppers. Two works best. Specifically: an anchor and an upgrade. When the brain hits choice overload, it defaults to inaction. But with two clear tiers, buyers can say, “I’m THIS kind of customer.” That’s why small brands launching four, six,...
7 days ago • 1 min read
The fastest way to build trust might be telling buyers what your product won’t do. New 2025 research on brand transparency shows something neat: When brands clearly state their limits, purchase intent goes up. Consumers read honesty about trade-offs as a sign of integrity: “they’re telling me the whole story.” For product makers, it can be a massive opportunity. Instead of adding another paragraph of hype to your landing page, try a short block that says: “Not for you if…” Or “Best for…”...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Turning Grand Central Station into a pine forest might be the best sensory play of the season. Bath & Body Works is running a campaign that makes parts of New York City (yes, even its subways) smell like Fresh Balsam. Image courtesy Bath & Body Works The brand’s realistic evergreen tree scent greets commuters in Grand Central and Chicago’s Clark & Lake station, diffusing holiday memories into the air where most people expect … something else entirely. It’s genius sensory reframing. By...
9 days ago • 1 min read
The most polarizing products sometimes become the most profitable. A super-creepy doll.A blanket with sleeves.A pen “for women.” All ridiculous … until you see the sales numbers. None of them were great in a universal sense. But they truly stood out to someone specific. THAT is the trick most founders miss. You don’t need a product everyone on earth agrees is amazing. You DO need one a specific group can’t shut up about. Great doesn’t mean perfect. It means resonant. It means a clear hook, a...
10 days ago • 1 min read
