Market It in Their Words
Never invent positioning — put the exact words your reference customers used on the box
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 87%
Because expectations are set by what's on the box, Idiodi refuses to write marketing copy himself. He harvests the literal language his reference customers used during discovery and ships that — even when it includes a flaw. Marketing departments want to upgrade 'cool and sleek and easy to use' into 'comprehensive'; that gap between promised and delivered is what produces disappointed customers.
Origin
Christian Idiodi's own practice, as a by-product of the reference-customer discovery technique — the same customers who validate the product also supply its positioning, and marketing, sales, legal and finance are pulled into the discovery loop early.
Core principles
- 01Expectations are created by what's on the box.
- 02If you got the feedback during discovery, you are never surprised by what customers say at launch.
- 03Naming a real flaw alongside the real strength makes the promise credible and matches expectations.
- 04Discovery is not just for the product — it's how you learn to market AND sell the product.
- 05Pull marketing, sales, legal and finance into the customer work early; you retire viability risk while collecting the copy.
How to run it
- 1
Capture literal customer language during discovery
While working with your reference customers, record verbatim how they describe the product — 'cool', 'sleek', 'easy to use'. Do not paraphrase or upgrade the words.
Pro tip Explicitly test the copy back with them: 'does this language resonate with you — does this properly describe the menu?'
- 2
Ship their words, not marketing's words
Put exactly what customers said on the box. Resist the internal push to substitute grander, vaguer vocabulary that nobody actually used.
Watch out When marketing swaps 'sleek' for 'comprehensive', buyers arrive with expectations the product cannot meet and are disappointed on contact.
- 3
Name the known flaw honestly
If a real limitation exists that engineering cannot fix, say so on the box. Idiodi shipped a product described as 'super fast but difficult to read' because the font could not be changed.
Pro tip Customers then report exactly what you told them — 'it is super fast, it is also difficult to read' — which is a matched expectation rather than a complaint.
- 4
Hand sales the reference set, not a pitch
Arm sales with the reference customers themselves. Selling becomes trivial when you can show a prospect twenty people like them who already recommend it.
Pro tip This is the structural fix for product teams losing influence to sales: sales pushes back on product when they're forced to sell something with no references behind it.
In the wild
Idiodi's engineering team could not change the font on a product, making it genuinely hard to read. Rather than hiding it, the launch messaging said the product was super fast but difficult to read.
→ Customers' reaction on receiving it was exactly the messaging — 'it is super fast, it is also difficult to read.' Expectations matched reality and the launch produced no surprises.
A customer describes the product as cool, sleek and very nice. Marketing objects that those words are too lightweight and wants to call it 'comprehensive' instead.
→ Idiodi's rule is to ship the customer's words. The alternative creates expectations the product cannot meet, and buyers are disappointed when the box promised more than the product delivers.
Common mistakes
Writing positioning in a room without customers
Copy invented internally is an assumption about what will land. Idiodi refuses to make it up: 'I don't make that up — I only market exactly what customers tell me.'
Inflating the claim to sound more impressive
Every word you upgrade beyond what customers actually said widens the gap between expectation and product, and that gap is where churn and bad reviews come from.
Hiding a known flaw
Customers discover it anyway. Disclosing it converts an unpleasant surprise into a met expectation and buys credibility for the claims you do make.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and PMs approaching launch who already have a set of reference customers and are about to hand messaging to a marketing team.
Not ideal for
Categories where the customer has no existing vocabulary for the problem, or brand-led consumer positioning where aspirational language is the product.
From the transcript
“I only Market exactly what customers tell me I have never been surprised about what customers will say when I release a product”
“are created by what's on the box”
“so I'm going to put exactly what Lenny said on the box hey this product cool and sleek and easy to use”
“so what I do here is I learn how to sell the product with this technique I learn how to market the product because I…”
From the episode
The essence of product management
Christian Idiodi (SVPG)