Shah: Novel products require literal marketing before creative branding
Niraj Shah · Advice Line with Niraj Shah of Wayfair · Oct 30, 2025 · at 11:34
Niraj Shah (co-founder and CEO of Wayfair) is advising caller Valerie Zweig, co-founder of CookStix, on how to market her dehydrated chicken stock sticks.
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“One thing we've seen over the years, sometimes when something is novel, the best way to communicate it is to be literal. You know, on the front of it, just saying, you know, add 16 ounces of water, and, you know, your chicken stock's ready to go, or add 32 ounces, or whatever. Because the literal, what we found with marketing sometimes when something is novel, the literal explanation is the one that just becomes intuitive to people, and then, you can then go with the imagination after that, but if you don't start with the literal, It's hard to grab.”
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