Known-and-Unknown Customer Value Rule
Serve expressed demand while leading customers toward unimagined value
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 98%
The Known-and-Unknown Customer Value Rule gives marketing two simultaneous obligations. First, deliver what customers clearly say they need, using research to understand present problems, language, and expected outcomes. Second, develop enough taste, perspective, and market foresight to offer value customers cannot yet request because they have not experienced or imagined it. Relying only on expressed demand causes companies to converge on the same positioning and features as competitors. Ignoring expressed demand produces irrelevant innovation. The framework balances the two: secure trust by meeting the known need, form an evidence-informed view of emerging possibilities, introduce a concrete surprise, and measure whether customers adopt it. Leadership comes from expanding expectations rather than simply following them.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain as Kip Bodnar's closing rule for what the best marketers do.
Core principles
- 01Customer research reveals important present demand
- 02Research based only on existing expectations reproduces category sameness
- 03Strong marketers combine responsiveness with informed leadership
- 04Taste and point of view help anticipate unarticulated demand
- 05Iconic brands surprise customers without neglecting their current needs
How to run it
- 1
Capture expressed demand
Collect customers' stated problems, desired outcomes, objections, and expectations. Distinguish the underlying need from requested features.
Pro tip Ask what outcome the requested solution would create.
Watch out Literal feature requests may reflect only solutions customers already know.
- 2
Identify category sameness
Compare customer requests with competitor promises and standard market research. Mark areas where every company is responding in the same way.
Pro tip Look for identical language across competitor homepages and campaigns.
Watch out Common demand is important, but it rarely supplies differentiation by itself.
- 3
Develop a point of view
Study technological, cultural, and behavioral changes to determine what customers may value next. Form a clear thesis rather than collecting trends without interpretation.
Pro tip State what will change, for whom, and why.
Watch out A prediction without domain knowledge is not leadership.
- 4
Protect the known value
Continue delivering the outcome customers already depend on. Use that reliability as the foundation for introducing something unfamiliar.
Pro tip Keep core success metrics visible during innovation tests.
Watch out Surprise does not excuse neglecting the primary customer job.
- 5
Introduce the unknown value
Add a product experience, message, or capability customers did not request but that advances their underlying goal. Make its benefit easy to experience.
Pro tip Demonstrate the value rather than requiring customers to imagine it.
Watch out Novelty without improved outcomes is not customer value.
- 6
Measure and refine
Observe adoption, retention, advocacy, and customer understanding. Refine the new value while preserving the brand's distinctive point of view.
Pro tip Measure behavior as well as stated reactions to unfamiliar ideas.
Watch out Initial confusion does not always mean failure, but persistent nonuse is decisive evidence.
In the wild
Customers ask a marketing platform for faster reporting. The company delivers that improvement but also introduces an AI assistant that identifies emerging campaign risks before users know which report to open. A guided workflow demonstrates the unfamiliar value while preserving the requested reporting experience.
→ The company satisfies present demand and creates differentiation through a useful capability customers had not articulated.
A brand learns that every competitor's research produces the same request for convenience. It maintains a convenient buying process but adds a distinctive service that proactively removes a problem customers had accepted as unavoidable.
→ The brand remains relevant while leading the category toward a higher expectation.
Common mistakes
Following requests literally
Customers usually describe solutions they already know, which can pull every competitor toward the same offering.
Ignoring current needs
A future-facing concept fails if the company stops solving the problem customers hired it to solve today.
Confusing novelty with foresight
Unknown value must improve a real customer outcome rather than exist merely to look unconventional.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for brands seeking to innovate beyond competitor-led research while preserving relevance to current customers.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when teams lack the expertise, evidence, or trust needed to make responsible bets about unarticulated demand.
From the transcript
“The best marketers give their customers exactly what they want, and at the same time, give their customers what they don't yet know that they…”
“that means like being freaking cool, having taste, perspective, point of view on what is going to happen and being a leader.”
“You're never gonna build an iconic brand, an iconic company if you are a follower of your competitors or you're a follower of the same…”
From the episode
Twittersode! Licensing Bored Apes, A Crazy Franchise Story and The Role of AI in Creativity