Algorithms are amazing at making products popular. They’re way less effective at preserving what made buyers care in the first place.

I just read a great research paper on how consumers react to algorithm-driven recommendations in fashion.

The finding that jumped out at me most had very little to do with fashion, and everything to do with human nature.

Mainstream buyers tended to love algorithmic recommendations. They appreciated being shown what was trending, what looked good, and what other people were buying.

BUT more niche, taste-driven buyers behaved really differently.

The moment something started appearing everywhere, its value often dropped.

It felt overexposed, overdone, and too commonplace.

My daughters demonstrate this perfectly with music.

They can love a song on Monday and declare it grossly overplayed by Friday.

Products work the same way.

Think of Arc’teryx.

For years, the brand carried serious credibility with hardcore outdoor buyers. Then fashion culture got hold of it. TikTok helped. Celebrities added fuel to the fire.

Suddenly the brand was a major status signal far outside of the mountain crowd.

Great for growth.

But some longtime fans inevitably felt the signal changing. The exclusivity was ruined.

Or look at Stanley.

The Quencher became a phenomenon because visibility created desire. Then saturation was reached.

Once everyone and their grandma has the product, trendy buyers drop it and start running for the next thing that feels fresher, rarer, or more identity-enhancing.

This is one of the crazy tensions of modern marketing:

The algorithm rewards popularity. Human buyers reward discovery.

In I Need That⁠, I talk about how demand is shaped by context, identity, and emotional meaning. People respond to what a product helps them feel in a given moment.

A product can become dramatically more desirable as it gains visibility.

Then, at a certain point, too much visibility starts pushing more and more buyers away.

That doesn’t have to mean growth is bad.

But as product makers and marketers, we need to understand exactly which buyers we want more of, and which ones we might lose as things progress.

Want to make your product irresistible? That’s what we do as go-to-market consultants⁠ at Graphos Product, helping innovators turn need-driven ideas into market-ready successes.