Brilliant marketing—even if AI wrote it—can’t save a bad product

It’s ridiculously easy to launch a SaaS product today. You're only a few AI prompts away from a website, mobile app, podcast, book—or even an article describing this new kind of proficiency. In fact, I used ChatGPT 4.5 to research this essay, and it gave me some hints on how to say certain things and even suggested a title. But what it could not provide was the idea to write about this topic or the decades of experience I have building and marketing products. The paradox of easy creation We are living in a reality where AI-driven tools have exponentially lowered the barriers to creation. If it’s digital, then chances are it can be created faster and with less skill than even six months ago. By the time this piece is posted, I’ll wager that we’ll see another jump in the ability to create mediocre, buzzword-laden digital flotsam and jetsam that we can’t live without. Data-Driven Marketing Playbook Join us May 22 in NYC to explore how data powers marketing Learn more here In this new reality, there is no differentiation in having a product. It’s about rising above the noise so that people will even consider your product. The illusion of early wins I love that creation is being democratized and that anyone with an idea can scratch their creative itch, put it in the marketplace and see what happens. But that’s also the problem. This double-edged sword of ease of creation and easy wins of early success raises the level of market noise. It fills the creator with optimism that they might have something and heightens market fatigue to such a degree that consumer preferences might change repeatedly. As of 2024, there were 14,106 sales and marketing tools, a 27.8% year-over-year increase. So, merely creating another tool doesn't guarantee meaningful adoption or market success. Brilliant marketing is an amplifier The scary part of all this AI is that it’s extremely good at the most fundamental of marketing skills: bullshitting—which captures attention, amplifies promises and triggers prospects to lean in. But it quickly backfires when reality falls short. Couple that with the personalization insights that AI can deliver—slick copy, gorgeous visuals and compelling narrative—that you might book a demo that subsequently fails to deliver. Brilliant marketing is an amplifier. It does not discriminate between a bad product and a good product. Done well, it magnifies the product's inherent value. If the inherent value is vaporware, then you’re going to get a lot of disappointed prospects and worse G2 reviews. The fundamentals of business success The reality of creating stellar products and amplifying them with brilliant marketing is that you’ll always need to apply the fundamentals: Ad Age Small Agency Awards Showcase your agency’s creativity, business success and commitment to a thriving workplace. Enter today More importantly, the human in the loop must know what good is. Without a deep and thorough understanding of what an excellent product looks like, AI will generate the same old generic products that everyone else can make. Don’t chase easy; pursue excellence While I am skeptical that AI can fix all our problems, it’s exciting that the pursuit of excellence will matter more and more when it comes to creating and marketing products. When self-publishing started to break the monopoly of the big publishing houses, a lot of mediocre books were published. But over time, the democratization of publishing, specifically e-books, opened up new voices who would otherwise have never had a shot at success. The reason was simple. They wrote excellent books, worked hard to market them and built an audience that appreciated their art. I’m sure Andy Weir, whose 2011 novel “The Martian” was adapted into the 2015 film of the same name, would agree. This pursuit of excellence is what consistently breaks through mediocrity, rewarding those who refuse shortcuts. AI might democratize creation, but it’s still human craftsmanship, judgment and relentless dedication to fundamentals that will separate enduring successes from forgettable failures—no matter how shiny the AI-driven revolution appears. Ad Age A-List and Creativity Gala Buy your ticket to the in-person event Click here

Brilliant marketing—even if AI wrote it—can’t save a bad product

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