Day 27.5: Thinking About Distribution

How a simple idea keeps opening new doors

I’m calling this Day 27.5 because it’s been a few days, and the last edition didn’t feel strong enough to stand on its own. I’ve had a bit of a mental block, too, which slowed me down.

Work has been crazy also, and honestly, my MBA deadlines took over. By the time I was done at night, I had nothing left in me.

I wanted to take today to talk about why distribution has always fascinated me.

It is one of those ideas that looks simple until you really sit with it. At its core, it is just the process of getting your product into people’s hands. But that one act can separate a quiet company from one that is everywhere.

Growing up, I used to wonder why some companies struggled even though their products looked fine. Others were making profits with products that did not even seem superior. Over time, it became clear that the difference often lies in how well they distribute. Some brands simply know how to show up where their customers already are. That presence alone becomes a form of power.

This is part of what always pulled me toward FMCG. I may be in tech, but FMCG brands understand how to reach people in ways that feel effortless. Their marketing may not always be exciting, but their reach is undeniable. Tech brands do the same thing in their own style. The methods are different, but the discipline behind it is very similar.

What makes distribution even more interesting is how it rewards presence over brilliance. You do not always need the smartest product. You just need to appear in the right places, at the right time, in the way your users prefer to meet you. Once you know your ICP well, once you understand their behaviour and patterns, you can shape your distribution in a way that feels natural to them. And that unlocks a lot.

Tomorrow I want to explore something that comes up a lot for marketers. How do you make the case for distribution inside your company? Because at some point, this is not just a marketing conversation. Product needs to be involved. Engineering needs to be involved. Budget decisions appear. And if the product is not built with distribution in mind, it becomes expensive or slow to move. So knowing how to advocate for it matters.

And distribution stretches beyond products. It touches content, ideas, channels and presence. Many brands forget how wide the options really are. Platforms like Reddit, Quora or even Pinterest can work if the audience aligns. Substack itself is a distribution channel, even though most people treat it like a pure publishing space.

Once you start thinking in this direction, you begin to see opportunities everywhere. One message can live across several places. One product can exist inside several ecosystems. That is the magic behind embedded distribution. It meets people in the exact place they already spend their time.

Pricing also plays its part. Think of ChatGPT and ChatGPT Go. The pricing structure clearly targets a segment that would not pay the higher amount. Pricing can become a silent distribution tool by making adoption easier.

All of these layers keep pulling me toward this topic. It changes how you plan, how you execute, and how you understand growth. And tomorrow we will talk about how to make that case internally, which is often where the real work begins.

Thanks for staying with me.