Here’s why we love working with startups
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“Invention… does not consist in creating out of a void, but out of chaos.”
— Mary Shelley
When we launched rand&rand in 2018, Mike and I were building on our years of experience writing content for companies of all sizes—from local law firms to enterprise, international tech companies. Too often, both of us had been pigeon-holed into writing a specific type of content. It might be counterintuitive to think that, despite these companies’ differences in sizes, services, and verticals, much of the content we came across in their industries was objectively the same.
We’ve already written a lot on the subject of generic content. What I want to highlight with this op-ed is not that content tends to be the same, but that the lack of innovation in the content field is less about laziness and more about a superficiality with which businesses try to differentiate themselves and their products.
Dressing Up Detergent
Take laundry detergent, for instance. Little has changed in the makeup of your laundry detergent over the last 20 years. (Pods are convenient, but not a real game changer). What has changed is the branding, advertising, and packaging. And with all of those marketing dollars spent—neatly rolled into the price you pay at the register—how have those investments helped you as a consumer?
With all the money companies spend on superficial branding, advertising, and packaging, how has that helped you as a consumer?
Arguably, it helps you see the value in certain products over others. But we don’t often find those distinctions in leading brands. As much as Mountain Dew tries to brand itself as a lifestyle, their actual product is, and always will be, water and high-fructose corn syrup.
The truth is, if you’re marketing the same product you’ve been marketing for decades, you’ve little room to further distinguish the value of your product. Barring any meaningful changes to the way you do business, you’re left spending millions on advertising campaigns featuring skateboarders and dance moves, but little value to actual consumers.
Startups Captivate Us
We love startups for the simple reason that they don’t have this option. They cannot rely on widely accepted products that don’t need to change—products that only need to edge out another 0.001% market share.
As much as Mountain Dew tries to brand itself as a lifestyle, their actual product is, and always will be, water and high-fructose corn syrup.
Startups must tap new markets or redirect existing ones. By definition, startups must go to market with revolution in mind.
What’s more, they can’t use a superficial content strategy because nobody would listen. Their content strategies need inherent value in and of themselves. They need to deliver a message that sparks an ‘Aha!’ moment in their audience, not an ad campaign that simply dances—literally—around the substance of their actual products.
That’s a challenge to us, and we really like those kinds of challenges. Like most creative people, we want to produce something that matters. Something that helps not only our clients but their customers—in both an immediate way and in terms of generating long-term value for both.
New companies typically don’t make it to the marketing investment stage without a viable product or service in mind. With the right insight into their market and a clear mission in terms of the value they can deliver to their audience, there’s nothing holding them back from a transformative content strategy.
If you’re going to market with a completely new idea, you’re bringing inspired stability to a small piece of chaos. You’re sharing a solution people desperately need before they realize solving their problem is possible. We hope we’re at your side when it happens.
