Is the issue with marketing itself, or is it with the product being marketed, which fails to offer sufficient value to customers? Here, ‘product’ can refer to a physical or digital product, a service, or a combination of these. Growth-oriented organizations often rely on sales leadership as a key growth driver. But is this always the most effective approach?
Marketing strategies can broadly be categorized into push and pull marketing. Push marketing actively brings products to customers through advertising and sales efforts. Pull marketing, on the other hand, is based on products or services naturally attracting customers and generating sustainable demand. Companies relying too much on the push model must constantly allocate resources to acquire new customers rather than having a product that customers seek out and return to organically.
In an ideal world, marketing wouldn’t be necessary. Who would want to maintain marketing expenses if sales happened effortlessly?
Few companies achieve this level of organic sales. While exceptional products may sell themselves, relying solely on this is risky. A balance between marketing, sales, and product development is essential.
A fundamental marketing question is: What value do we offer customers that genuinely differentiates us? If there’s no clear and sharp answer, marketing often resorts to generic sales rhetoric. At Ideavirta, we’ve helped numerous companies move beyond surface-level marketing to strategies that truly enhance customer experience.
In highly competitive markets, marketing is expected to deliver strong results. If a company lacks a clear value proposition, marketing efforts often shift to sales-driven tactics, focusing on short-term metrics rather than long-term differentiation.
Focusing too much on short-term sales may yield immediate gains, but what happens when customer experience and brand development take a backseat? If brand trust is neglected in favor of quick wins, marketing fails to build lasting value.
Sales and revenue keep a company running, but is a business that merely sustains itself without solving customer problems on solid footing? This approach leads to several challenges:
A great product truly sells itself. Companies like Aarni Wood (wooden watches), Kyrö Distillery’s Napue Gin (global gin competition winner), and Vönen Lastu (a unique kebab alternative) have all succeeded by offering products that customers love and organically promote.
Sometimes, a ‘product’ is a service where the customer’s experience is paramount. Even if the core service is identical to competitors, how the experience is delivered can be the key differentiator.
At Ideavirta, we worked with a startup offering an analytics service. Their product was well-structured around customer benefits, and marketing materials reflected this approach. However, sales struggled. Possible reasons included:
Another possibility was that the product didn’t simplify the customer’s work but instead made it more complex. Who wants to buy a service that increases workload?
Without a compelling product, marketing and sales couldn’t compensate for its shortcomings.
In e-commerce, paid advertising alone isn’t enough for sustainable sales growth. We’ve seen firsthand that improving usability and product discoverability leads to increased sales—even without additional advertising. This shows that customer experience plays a crucial role in e-commerce success.
At Ideavirta, our approach is to integrate marketing with customer experience so that a brand isn’t just an external message but is reflected in every aspect of the product and service. Companies that prioritize customer experience and product improvement tend to succeed more than those focused solely on optimizing sales processes.
Businesses that focus purely on sales mechanics often struggle with ad budgets and the diminishing returns of paid advertising.
Creating a better product may seem like a daunting goal. While it can be challenging, the solution is often simple: understand your customer better.
A strong commitment to improvement starts with acknowledging the current state and having a desire to be better. Sometimes, a minor yet meaningful industry-specific insight can make all the difference.
At Ideavirta, we combine strategic vision with hands-on execution. We don’t just plan marketing; we:
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