New research suggests that before your product reaches a buyer, it increasingly has to persuade a platform.

There was a time not long ago when marketing seemed SO straightforward …

Just build a product people want.

Help them discover it.

And convince them to buy.

BOOM, done.

Well, that model keeps a-changing.

A fascinating new paper on what the researchers call Digital Platforms 2.0 argues that platforms are no longer passive marketplaces.

They actively decide what gets seen, recommended, ranked, endorsed, and, yep, purchased.

In many categories, your product now has TWO customers to please.

The first is the person who will in fact use it.

The second doesn’t buy anything from you.

It’s the platform.

Think about it:

A seller on Amazon isn’t only trying to persuade shoppers. They’re working to earn Amazon’s recommendation algorithms, badges, reviews, and rankings.

And a creator on TikTok first has to convince TikTok that the content deserves distribution, or no one will see it.

Companies investing in search now have to figure out what Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT will decide to surface before customers ever get to their brands.

Platforms have pretty quickly evolved from digital shelves into editors.

For decades, brands focused only on understanding buyers. Now, they also need to understand the systems standing between them and those buyers.

The rules of discovery are suddenly just as important as the products themselves.

This connects directly to I Need That.

The best products still solve real, meaningful customer needs. That part hasn’t changed.

BUT if buyers never encounter those products because an algorithm decides something else deserves attention, just solving the need won’t cut it.

Tomorrow’s winners have to build products that BOTH customers and platforms recognize as valuable.

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.