When Marketing Feels Hard, Check These 5 Ingredients
With Thanksgiving only a week away, it’s hard not to think about holiday memories. Part of what makes this season special is the nostalgia, the smells, the stories, and the little traditions that never quite go as planned.
One of my favorites is the year my dad accidentally used cream of tartar instead of cornstarch in his famous apple pie.
He followed the recipe almost perfectly. Peeled the apples. Added the cinnamon. Baked it until the crust was golden. But one small mix-up threw everything off. The texture was weird, the flavor was strange, and what should have been comforting turned into something no one really wanted to finish.
It’s a funny memory now, but it’s also a perfect metaphor for an aspect of marketing that’s been on my mind a lot lately.
Even when you’ve got the right parts — a great product, a passionate team, a clear audience — one ingredient out of balance can ruin the result.
When marketing feels hard, it’s rarely a creativity problem. It’s a strategy and positioning problem.
Marketing isn’t one secret ingredient. It’s how all the ingredients work together. The classic 4Ps — Product, Price, Place, and Promotion — plus the one most teams forget, Positioning, are like the essentials in a great recipe. Each one matters, but it’s the combination that makes people come back for more.
Here’s how to know which part of your recipe might need adjusting.
1. Product: The Main Ingredient
Every great dish starts with quality ingredients. Your product is the centerpiece of your marketing recipe, the flavor everything else depends on.
If it doesn’t solve a real problem or bring something fresh to the table, even the best campaigns won’t stick. But your product might be great; it just might not be presented, priced, or positioned in a way that lets people taste how good it is.
When I work with teams, I start by asking:
What is the real flavor of this product?
Who will actually love it, and why now?
What makes it stand out on a crowded menu?
Sometimes the marketing work isn’t about adding spice. It’s about refining the core ingredient so everything else complements it.
Because even the best apple pie can fall flat when you use the wrong thickener.
2. Price: The Menu Value
Pricing is like the menu description. It tells people what kind of experience to expect before they take a bite.
Too low, and they wonder what’s missing. Too high, and they expect something extraordinary. The right price feels natural. It matches the flavor, the quality, and the promise.
Pricing isn’t just a number; it’s a message. It says something about how confident you are in your product and who it’s really for.
When your price tells the same story your product does, people know exactly what they’re ordering. They don’t have to think twice.
But if your pricing feels inconsistent or confusing, you’re sending mixed signals before the first bite.
3. Place: The Setting
Even the best meal can fall flat if it’s served in the wrong place.
“Place” is where and how people experience your brand. It’s the setting that shapes expectations.
If you’re serving a five-course meal from a folding table or offering a casual snack in a white-tablecloth restaurant, something feels off. Context matters.
You don’t need to be everywhere. You just need to show up where your audience is already hungry.
Ask yourself:
Where are my customers looking when they feel the problem I solve?
What kind of setting would make my product feel natural to discover?
Are we showing up there with consistency and confidence?
When your environment fits the experience you’re promising, your marketing starts to feel effortless.
4. Promotion: The Presentation
Promotion is the plating. It’s how people see and feel your offer before they ever taste it.
It’s the story, the visuals, the first impression. It’s what makes someone stop and think, “That looks good.”
But presentation only works when it matches what’s on the plate. Oversell a simple dish, and people feel misled. Undersell a great one, and it never gets noticed.
Promotion isn’t about perfection; it’s about truth, told beautifully. When your presentation matches your product, you don’t have to push so hard for attention. People can see the value right away.
Good marketing doesn’t trick people into trying something mediocre. It invites them into something meaningful.
Positioning: The Foundation That Holds Everything Together
Positioning is the foundation of your entire marketing recipe. It’s the base layer that gives everything else shape, clarity, and purpose. Without a strong foundation, even the best ingredients slide around, lose structure, and never come together as a complete experience.
You can have a great product, smart pricing, and beautiful promotion, but if people don’t understand what you are, who you’re for, or why you matter, the whole thing feels unstable. It never quite lands.
A solid positioning foundation defines how you show up in the market and what people expect before they ever take the first bite. It creates coherence. It creates confidence. It gives your audience something to hold on to.
Positioning is how you answer three simple but powerful questions:
Why this?
Why now?
Why us?
The Fletch Positioning Model is a great way to clarify that flavor. It challenges teams to get specific about:
Audience: Who are we cooking for?
Category: What kind of experience are we offering?
Promise: What transformation can only we deliver?
When you know those answers, everything else — product, pricing, place, and promotion — starts to work in harmony.
Positioning isn’t a garnish; it’s the sauce that ties every flavor together.
6. Balance: The Whole Recipe
If your marketing feels off, the answer isn’t always to turn up the heat. Sometimes you need to step back and taste what’s already there.
Maybe the product is great, but the price sends the wrong signal. Maybe the story doesn’t match the experience. Maybe you’re showing up in the right places but serving the wrong portion.
When you look at all five ingredients together, you start to see where the imbalance is. Once you fix that, everything else starts to click.
You don’t need more tactics. You need better balance.
Marketing works best when the full recipe makes sense — when what you’re offering, how you’re pricing, where you’re showing up, how you’re promoting, and what you’re promising all point to the same truth.
That’s what alignment tastes like.
Final Thought
That pie my dad made? We still talk about it every Thanksgiving. It’s one of those family stories that gets better every year.
But it’s also a great reminder that even small missteps can change everything.
You can’t out-promote a bad recipe.
When your product delivers real value, your price makes sense, your place meets people where they are, your promotion reflects the truth, and your positioning ties it all together, your marketing starts to feel effortless.
So before you add more noise or chase another shiny idea, check your ingredients. Make sure your mix is right.
Because when everything’s balanced, you don’t have to convince people to take a bite.
They can already smell that it’s good.
