What a Hardware Guy Taught Me About Marketing

I don't know what took me so long to read Build by Tony Fadell, but I'm glad I finally did. It's been on my list for ages, and it ended up being one of the better business books I've read in a while. Good enough that I wanted to write down a few things that stuck with me.

Build is framed as an entrepreneur's memoir where Fadell walks through his path from General Magic to Philips to Apple (where he led the iPod and iPhone hardware teams) to founding Nest and its rocky handoff into Google. But you don't need to be starting a company to get something out of it. It's really a book about building anything worth building, including a product, a team, a culture, and the lessons land whether you're a founder, a manager, or an individual contributor.

What comes through most is how much Fadell learned by doing. Despite his resume and trajectory, being associated with iconic companies and products, he didn't pretend to have all the answers; he surrounded himself with people who knew better than he did, and he's candid about the mistakes along the way. That honesty is what makes the culture chapters hit. His warnings about letting "brilliant jerks" poison a team are painfully relatable to anyone who's worked around one. And his chapters on burnout stand out precisely because he doesn't fit the always-on founder stereotype you'd expect. He's clearly obsessive about the work, but he's just as clear that rest isn't optional. Instead, it's precisely what lets you come back with the energy and perspective to actually build well.

Where the book really landed for me, though, was on marketing. Fadell is a hardware and product guy first, but his time at Apple—sitting close to Steve Jobs, the master storyteller himself—clearly shaped how he thinks about brand. His point isn't that you need clever advertising. It's that marketing is the discipline of finding the why before you obsess over the what. A product doesn't sell itself just because the technology is good; it sells because people understand, viscerally, the problem it solves for them. In practice, that's of course much easier said than done, but I really enjoyed the stories he tells about actually pulling it off during his time at Apple and Nest.

He puts it simply:

"The best ideas are painkillers, not vitamins."

A few takeaways that stuck with me:

• Find the pain, not the nice-to-have. Before you ship anything, ask what real pain it removes. If you can't answer that clearly, you're building a vitamin, and vitamins are easy to ignore.

• Always be iterating. Fadell is blunt that V1 is never good enough, and that's fine. The point is to start. The first iPod only really landed with Mac enthusiasts; it took until the third generation for it to become the cultural phenomenon we all remember. Progress beats perfection, every time.

• Brand is everything, all the time. Your customer doesn't separate your ad from your app from your support team. To them, it's all just your brand. That's a useful gut-check for marketers: every touchpoint should be telling the same story, whether you're managing it or not.

• Burnout is real, and rest is part of the job. Fadell isn't preaching balance for its own sake. He's making the case that protecting your energy is what lets you keep building well over the long run.

If you're in marketing, product, or just building something you care about, Build is worth the read.

From Disposable to Desirable: My Favorite Examples of Circular Economy Marketing and Product Design

One of my favorite initiatives at Pioneer has been our trade-in program. It allows users to return old tech for a discount on new models, and we ensure the legacy products are responsibly recycled.

Without programs like these, our technology often ends up in landfills, leeching harmful chemicals into the environment. This poses sweeping risks—impacting the quality of our drinking water supplies as well as harming coastal habitats and ocean life.

As a marketer, I’m excited by programs that allow us to tell a good story, satisfy the needs of the end user, and do significant good in the process. That’s why I love watching brands move away from the linear “take-make-waste” model, finding creative ways to make product longevity and reuse a core, desirable feature—not just a necessary evil.

These are some of my favorite examples of brands that take this type of marketing to the next level.

Patagonia’s Worn Wear: The Status of Repair

Of course, no conversation about sustainability and business is complete without discussing Patagonia. This is a brand that continually puts its money where its mouth is when it comes to promoting environmental activism and championing sustainable practices in their business.

Patagonia is also famous for helping to make product longevity a badge of honor. The brand’s ads to support this mission are classic, featuring big bold headlines saying, “Don’t buy this jacket.”

But Patagonia went well beyond a clever advertisement.

Their Worn Wear program offers customers a service to sell used gear, and even provides DIY repair tutorials to extract maximum life out of their favorite Patagonia clothing. The claim of being built to last took on a whole new meaning through the program. It not only reinforced the brand’s reputation for high-quality products but also encouraged customers to evolve from one-time buyers to lifetime customers by holding onto their gear for the long haul.

Scars, patches, and wear ultimately became a sign of authenticity and legacy—not something to discard.

Loewe: Linking Longevity to Craftsmanship

An expression I often use is “buy it nice or buy it twice.” The core idea is simple: spending a little more upfront often delivers higher quality. That translates into getting a product that will last, and potentially save you money in the long run.

While luxury goods can sometimes be perceived as a frivolous purchase, the truth is that quality fundamentally beats quantity. This is perhaps most evident in “fast fashion” trends where brands like Forever 21 famously create an endless variety of new clothes on an ongoing basis. However, those clothes were not built to last, and the relatively low cost of each garment leads to more consumption and waste in the process.

On the other side of the spectrum, Loewe is the antithesis of “cheap,” not just due to its high prices, but because it respects the craftsmanship of its products. The brand wants its customers to share that appreciation, too.

In addition to selling you new products, Loewe even dedicates physical space to upholding the longevity of the item you already own, employing full-time leather artisans in some of its retail spaces to help customers repair and maintain their products. Crucially, this service gets people back into their stores, increasing foot traffic and the likelihood of additional purchases. 

So, it’s good for business and the environment. 

IKEA Buyback & Resell Service: Designing for the Next Life

IKEA employs a different approach entirely: embedding circular design principles into the product itself. 

By designing furniture with simple joinery, such as snap fittings instead of glue or nails, IKEA’s products are inherently more sustainable and require less material complexity to produce.

This innovative approach to product design also has other benefits. It facilitates easy disassembly to move the item to other places without damaging it. It’s also handy for submitting to IKEA’s sustainable buy-back program, which allows customers to sell back their used furniture.

Ultimately, by facilitating the movement of used items, IKEA is ensuring each product it produces lasts significantly longer.

Longevity is the New Luxury

Circularity is not just an environmental obligation; it’s a competitive advantage and the new definition of a premium product.

From these examples, and many others, the most effective circular campaigns don't talk about waste; they talk about value, legacy, pride, and smart ownership. It requires a shift from marketing volume to marketing longevity. It forces us to think beyond today's transaction and deliver benefits that engage and support the end user long into the future.

Which product in your life are you proudest to own and repair? How can we apply that pride to even everyday items?

A Battery That Lasts Longer Than Yours

I often discuss the interplay between brand marketing and performance marketing, as well as the intersection of the two combined. However, brand campaigns can blend together with product marketing in interesting ways as well.  

That’s what Sennheiser's new campaign for their Momentum 4 Wireless headphones does exceptionally well. It’s a clever blend of humor and relatable storytelling, specifically highlighting the impressive 60-hour battery life. In partnership with Ogilvy Amsterdam, Sennheiser developed a campaign that taps into the universal experience of commuter fatigue that makes the feature benefit a little more relatable. 

The campaign features candid shots of people napping on public transportation, showcasing the headphones' unwavering performance even when their owners are fast asleep. 

The message is clear: while your battery might give out, the Momentum 4 Wireless headphones will keep going strong.

Shot guerilla-style with a handheld camera, the campaign captures the raw, authentic moments of commuting life. The viewer is invited to peek into the lives of fellow passengers, adding a touch of humor and relatability.

There’s a clear consumer goal communicated here, which is that people want to listen to music uninterrupted for hours. They’ve also incorporated a key human insight here that makes the message more emotional, showing how hard-working people who give it their all during the day simply fall asleep on their commute at the end of the day.

There’s a subtle aspirational quality to the creative as well, seeing people who give it their all and push themselves. It’s what we admire in other ads featuring famous athletes leaving it all on the court or on the field. Here, it feels a little closer to home as Sennheiser opted instead to show “normal” people exhibiting the same dedication.

British Airways Redefines Travel Marketing: A Must-See Campaign

Sometimes you need to be bold to reinvent yourself. 

British Airways clearly accepted this challenge in its new ad campaign that attempts to re-establish its premium brand positioning, amid internal struggles and encroaching competition.

The airline went so bold that its ‘Windows’ ads don’t appear to be ads at all. There’s no tagline, no website URL, no call to action, no QR code. Even the logo is hardly visible.

Out of home executions feature uniquely cropped imagery that at first may seem off-kilter, like they were printed in error, undoubtedly prompting some bystanders to look twice. 

According to the airline, the campaign is designed to "capture the wonder on customers’ faces when they look out of an aircraft window and onto the world from 35,000 feet."

‘Windows’ is clearly a departure from your typical travel advertising, which often shows gleaming planes soaring across an open, majestic sky. Or, exotic locales where travelers frolic happily in their intended destinations. 

British Airways is no stranger to bold advertising

Instead of using the traditional travel advertising playbook, Uncommon Creative Studio – the London-based agency behind the creative – put the focus squarely on travelers’ emotions as they look towards their destination while building on British Airways’ 'A British Original' positioning. 

British Airways isn’t new to emotional campaigns. In 2022, the airline used OOH, digital, and print placements to highlight relatable reasons to fly. Once again, the ads were void of traditional product benefits, promotional prices, or specific calls to action, showing the airline understood travelers and their motivations.

Brand marketing that sells more than value 

Brands that are looking to move up-market should tap into something more than a customer’s basic needs or their hunt for value. Ultimately, British Airways knows that price isn’t an area where they will be able to compete against low-cost European counterparts. 

This campaign aims to solidify BA’s brand and positioning before travelers begin their search for flights, and even before price comes into account. But when that happens, the travelers are confronted with a tradeoff. Should I spend $100 more for a British Airways experience, or save $100 and settle for a discount airline that simply gets me there? 

What’s more is that the airline isn’t touting features or where they can deliver value. For example, BA is not advertising slightly more comfortable seats, or more convenient routes, or recently remodeled terminals. Diving into those features may very well bring it back to price for the traveler. Is it really worth paying $100 more to have just a slightly better seat?

That line of consumer decision making is what this campaign is cleverly trying to avoid altogether. 

Of course, the bravado of this campaign works because British Airways already has an iconic brand with strong awareness. Still, it underscores that powerful brand marketing has the potential to shift perceptions and expectations, ultimately making the purchase decision about excitement, emotion, and much more than dollars and cents. 

In the case of British Airways, they’re not trying to convince you to choose the cheapest airline, or even the one with the most bang for the buck. They want you to believe that having a truly great trip is only about choosing the right airline.

Beyond the Brochure: Where "Ultimate Driving Machine" Becomes Reality at the BMW Performance Center

When I was in high school my parents had a BMW 3 Series wagon. I have so many fond memories of this car. Once on the road, this seemingly demure family hauler truly embodied the brand’s late ‘90's to early 2000's slogan: The Ultimate Driving Machine.

Responsive acceleration, grippy brakes, and precise steering, were some of the qualities that made the car an absolute blast to drive. It also handled like a dream thanks to the near perfect 50:50 weight distribution—something of an obsession by BMW engineers.

Simply put, the car was made to be driven. For those who love driving, these qualities are what makes a BMW so thrilling every time you get behind the wheel.

However, BMW didn’t just stop with creating a high-performance product. They’ve long created experiences that showcase what The Ultimate Driving Machine really means to owners and non-owners alike. Perhaps no better place to experience the thrills is at BMW’s Performance Center West. 

Located about 45 minutes southeast of Palm Springs, the driving school consists of several race tracks within a private club in Thermal, California. There are a range of programs available, from a teen driving school to Mini stunt driving program to intense two-day track events. I recently had the pleasure of taking the M Performance Course where I put a BMW M3 Competition through its paces. 

Following some light refreshments in the Center's lounge and instruction space, and a surprisingly quick tutorial on track fundamentals from a seasoned racing driver and instructor, it was time to get behind the wheel. 

Turning on to the racing track, we followed the instructor on a reconnaissance lap to get familiar with the course. Slowly we followed the instructor, mirroring his path, how he turned into each corner, braking when he slowed down, accelerating when sped up 

After only one intro lap, it was time to open up our M3’s. 

With each adrenaline-pumping lap at speed, the instructor continued to provide on-going tips over the radio, like when to brake, reminders to accelerate out of turns, and suggestions to help refine our skills and lap times.

Trying to keep only a few car lengths from the instructor’s car I hit higher and higher speeds—close to 120 mph—and felt the G forces increase as I tamed over 500 horsepower around the twists and turns. 

The experience certainly helped forge my performance driving skills. It also kept the focus on what sets BMW vehicles apart. 

BMW’s promise of building The Ultimate Driving Machine isn’t just about speeds and feeds. It’s about delivering sheer driving pleasure to anyone who gets behind the wheel. 

At BMW’s Performance Center, that ethos is perfectly brought to life in a one-of-a-kind experience. You can see the caliper size of the M3’s massive Brembo brakes on a table of specs, but feeling of their stopping power before heading into a turn and smelling the pads after a pit stop gives you a completely different understanding of the product feature. 

In a crowded marketplace, experiential events like these can help brands stand out from traditional marketing strategies and grab consumer attention. The community built at the performance center was also amazing. Everyone was there for the same reason, and that made for a great day.

This event also perfectly reinforces and envelops participants in the brand message as they learn about products in a fun and interactive way. After all, the path to purchase for premium products is by no means linear. Plus, there’s even an opportunity for brands to gather valuable data and insights to inform future marketing efforts. 

I am not even in-market for a new car, yet somehow I found myself venturing to BMW’s website to learn more about the vehicle I happily tortured around the track. 

While navigating the course, as my heart rate went up, I got closer to understanding my limits, as well as the car’s (considerable) limits. It also revealed that there’s a lot more to BMW than a tagline. That’s the point at which the promise of a slogan gives way to a memorable brand. 

For me, the experience in Thermal brought back childhood memories of that 3 Series wagon I had a love affair with, amid some adolescent mischief. It also reminded me that BMW hasn’t lost their way. Even decades later, at least in my mind, BMW remains The Ultimate Driving Machine.

Prepare for the Future: How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2024

From the explosion of AI to the exploits of X, it’s been an exciting year for social media, e-commerce, and digital marketing in general. 

There are countless trends to watch and predictions to make for next year. Here are just a few of the things I’m thinking about as I look to the year ahead. 

Cookies are Being Deprecated

Third-party cookies for ad targeting and measurement are going away. This is huge. 

According to eMarketer, more than $123 billion in programmatic advertising is transacted via real-time bidding on the open internet—much of that being guided by the use of cookies today. 

As a result, brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech companies, all have to rethink their media strategies in 2024. The entire advertising industry will shift to new targeting and measurement technologies in the year ahead, if they haven’t already.

Immersive In-person Shopping Experiences

During the pandemic, we loved browsing our favorite products from the comfort of our own homes. However, shopping behavior during this past year indicates something truly shocking, at least to me: brick-and-mortar isn’t going away. 

In-store sales have rebounded post-pandemic, and most businesses are confident that physical stores will continue to play a large role in the purchase journey. 

As such, brands need to invest in enhancing the customer’s in-store shopping experience to stand out from the competition. This is especially important when put into the context of an omnichannel landscape, where shopping can happen anytime, anywhere. 

The journey to the store is no longer just transactional, either. Enjoying the in-store experience is the main reason 35% of consumers shop in-store, and another 24% want to interact with products before buying.

Perhaps the biggest opportunities will be in bridging the online and offline gap, which might include options for: buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS); buy in-store, ship to home; buy online, return in-store. These will all be important to savvy shoppers in 2024. 

More Selling with Video

Video had a huge impact on the shopping journey this past year, with 54% percent of consumers demanding more video content from brands.

Video will continue to have a massive influence, helping shoppers decide which product or brand to buy, as well as enhance the in-store experience. That’s also why online retailers are introducing more video advertising units and live streams within their platforms. 

Brands will likely embrace more video across social media, where selling via live videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and others, is likely to grow. That’s apparent in the continued shopping capabilities that are being added to social media platforms. 

Of course, B2C brands are doubling down on short-form video and UGC content for good reason. The ROI on short-form videos is there, and that’s expected to continue next year. 

All Eyes are on YouTube

YouTube always amazes me. I’ve seen success on the platform from my own campaigns and content initiatives. In 2024, it’ll continue to be ripe with opportunities for brands and marketers. 

According to eMarketer, YouTube accounts for more than 20% of ad revenues and time spent with CTV in the U.S. That’s staggering, and it shows that the platform is building a following, even on the big screen. 

YouTube also caters to a wide audience, with Gen Zers and millennials accounting for the majority of viewers. YouTube’s influence is also expanding, fueled by a younger demographic deeply engaged with the platform. While TikTok and Instagram get all the buzz, Pew Research reports that 19% of teens use YouTube “almost constantly.” 

YouTube Shorts specifically shouldn’t be ignored in 2024. While daily views are still eclipsed by Meta’s Reels, YouTube Short generates more than 50 billion daily views and it’s growing rapidly. 

eMarketer predicts that YouTube’s growth will reach double digits in 2024 and 2025 and will exceed Hulu by 2025. That is just incredible and reveals the impact that YouTube still has on audiences. 

A Shift to Nano-influencers

Influencer marketing seems to have taken hold this past year, as brands become more savvy and embrace the fact that people follow people on social media. 

But what exactly is an influencer? That’s the question brands will grapple with in the year ahead. 

While macro influencers will continue to drive broader reach and brand recognition, there will likely be more opportunities for nano-influencers, or those with anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. 

For brands, these influencers offer two advantages: lower cost and higher engagement. 

Consumers are on a Quest for Quality

The cost-of-living crisis hit hard consumers hard this year. Inflation, among other economic trends, are making consumers reevaluate their spending habits and prioritize long-lasting, premium items.

This was a BFCM 2023 trend where shoppers did hold out during big shopping moments earlier in the year to spend during Holiday. 

Beyond promotional cadence, brands should enhance their premium product offerings to cater to this rising demand. If you have a unique product story that emphasizes quality and longevity, tell it loudly and proudly.  

Shoppers are also looking for other qualities in their decision-making. Specifically, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword anymore. There should be messaging that speaks to what brands are doing to address it, either in their product, the packaging, or through other corporate programs, to appeal to the modern, socially conscious consumer. 

That too feeds into the shoppers’ quest for quality, where consumers say they’re willing to pay a premium for sustainably sourced items. Sustainability is also factoring into brand loyalty, especially among Gen Z. 

Rise of Retail Media Networks (RMNs)

Retailers are still investing heavily to create omni-channel digital experiences both in-store and online. The innovation here is really being led by Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart.

Stores will become more like their online counterparts, leveraging technology like self-service scanners and cashierless checkout, to produce more seamless shopping experiences. 

Online, retail media networks will get even better with new targeting capabilities, cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and provide easy access to retailer first-party data—critical in this new cookie-less world we live in. 

These retail media networks will grow by an estimated $10 billion this year, fueled by their ability to capture omnichannel sales attribution, tie online experiences to offline sales, and extend access to shopper data to exciting new digital ad formats such as social media, streaming video, and other offsite media. 

Closing Thought

By no means is this an exhaustive list. However, these are just a few trends and tactics I’ll be taking into consideration as prep for 2024 gets underway. What are you excited to lean into? Send me an email with some of your marketing predictions for this year.