Every year, about 30,000 new consumer products are introduced to the market, and various studies have estimated that as many as 95% ultimately fail. 

Whenever I read that kind of statistic, I don’t think so much about the products.

My brain and heart go to the people behind them.

The founders, engineers, designers, and families who poured years of effort into an idea that never found the traction it deserved.

That’s why I write the Need Feed.

Through more than 30 years in marketing, I’ve seen incredible engineering, industrial design, and entrepreneurial effort disappear because of avoidable marketing or strategy mistakes.

Products were often built before anyone validated demand. Features got added that customers never gave a rip about. Positioning missed what buyers did need.

By the time many founders reached us, some of their biggest decisions had already been made, and changing direction had become expensive, emotionally difficult, and often both.

That’s one of the reasons I wrote I Need That.

I wanted to put decades of lessons into the hands of people I would never have the opportunity to work with personally.

The Need Feed grew from the same motivation.

Every day I read research papers, follow product launches, watch the world’s best brands, study buying psychology, and work with companies trying to solve difficult commercialization problems.

Every client teaches me something new. Often a pile of new things.

And every week another study confirms, expands, or blows up what I thought I knew.

I did know one thing for sure:

Our team can only work with a limited number of companies.

But an idea can help anyone who accesses it.

That’s why I write every single day, weekends included.

Some editions might save someone from making a costly mistake.

Others might help a founder finally understand why customers aren’t responding.

Or just keep that person curious, learning, and asking questions until they do.

And every once in a while, I hope something I write gives a reader the breakthrough that changes the trajectory of a product or a business.

AI can generate strategies that seem pretty convincing.

But experience helps you recognize which ones are likely to work

And creativity enables you to build what’s never been seen before.

That’s what I try to propel forward.

Practical thinking that’s been tested by research, shaped by client work, and refined over decades of watching products succeed and fail.

If that sounds useful, I’d love to have YOU as a subscriber.

(And if you already are, thank you. Hit reply to any of my emails, and I’ll answer!)

Laurier