Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception of it. An example I love that is not mentioned in the book: for years, few people bought “death insurance.” Then some genius changed the name to life insurance and grew the industry by many billions of dollars. After all, life insurance sounds so much better than death insurance.
You can be the best product for small market, build a real company, and then from a position of strength, either stay there or attempt to expand to adjacent markets.
Or be undistictive in a huge market, out-advertised and invisible, never getting off the ground.
Love motivates people to work through challenges that might otherwise lead them to give up. If those founders had focused on building for a customer they genuinely loved, they would have been more likely to persevere and create something that addressed a deep need. If they were to find a customer they loved serving, I would invest in them again.
nice - on the importance of customer obsession and falling in love with a customer, not a product.
I look at product as an act of, how does this get communicated through the distribution channel we need to use. Said another way: if this product doesn't make a pretty compelling social ad -> we ain't doing it.