SO YOU WANT TO START A BRAND: marketing from scratch in the age of over-saturation.

Where is a founder to start from zero these days? How do you get in front of people? And once you do, how the hell do you capture and actually retain their attention?

Some people say there’s never been a better time to start a brand— AI has made accessible a lot of knowledge and automation that we couldn’t have dreamed of a few years ago.

This is true, and at the same time, there’s never been more stuff on Planet Earth, and never more competition on the same few platforms to try to get people to spend their rapidly diminishing hard-earned money on said stuff.

Where is a founder to start from zero these days? How do you get in front of people? And once you do, how the hell do you capture and actually retain their attention? Better yet, how do you do this without millions of dollars and a celebrity co-founder?

First of all, bravo— you’re braver than a lot of people. The real prize, however, will come when you’re still brave after a year or two of getting your ass whooped by the industry.

First thing’s first: you will not be successful marketing a dud product. I didn’t say that the product has to be perfect, or that it needs to be the only thing like it on the market. (If this brand can successfully grow and market its line of LOBSTER LIP BALMS, I’m pretty sure you can do it too!)

BUT, what you make needs to be easy to understand, easy to buy, and packaged accordingly. Start here! 👇

And while you’re at it, read the other installments in the series too. I rounded ‘em all up for you right here, but I’ve written guides to:

• Product development

• Launch

• Taking the plunge and deciding to start a business

Looking for something in particular? Tell me in the comments what guide you want me to write next.

Let’s say you’ve got the product, and you have some early product market fit— in other words, objective third parties (read: customers) have validated that you have in fact understood the assignment, and developed something that people need, understand, desire and are willing to exchange money for. (Don’t turn your nose up at this, it’s 70% of the battle, and most unsuccessful consumer marketers are using totally viable strategies but not getting far due to totally un-viable product.)

So where do you go from there?

Read on for the 4 things I’d do to market a brand I was starting today— including tactical details, like who I’d hire and roughly how much I’d budget for each.