Every marketing move creates tension. The question is whether you understand what you’re building.
Seth Godin talks about this. It stuck with me.
When you make a move, a price increase, a new positioning, a campaign, you’re triggering something in people. A fear of loss. A desire for status. A sense of belonging or exclusion. People think their decisions are logical. They’re not. They’re built on convictions, culture, upbringing, things they’ve never examined.
As marketers we are building into the human psyche more than anything else.
Take a price increase. Even a small one. That creates a push. People feel it. Some will question, some will leave, some will hesitate. But what’s the pull? Are you committing to a longer investment in the product? Adding something meaningful? Keeping up with the market honestly?
If you can’t answer that clearly, you haven’t done the work.
Every tension has two sides. Your job is to understand both. What you’re pushing against and what you’re pulling people toward. The bridge between those two things is where the decision gets made.
Don’t be shy of creating tension. Just know what you’re building. Are you pulling more than you’re pushing? Is it landing where you want? And in the end, where does the equilibrium sit?
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