Be Your First Customer: The Secret Behind Truly Great Brands

A reminder to all brands, if you want customers to love your product and believe in it, you need to be your first customer.

Let’s look at some companies that didn’t just sell their products, they lived them. Their workplaces and cultures embodied exactly what they were trying to deliver to customers.

Apple: Living the Product from the Inside Out

In 1980, Apple CEO Mike Scott sent an internal memo banning all employees from buying, leasing, or using typewriters, effective immediately. His reasoning was simple:

“We believe the typewriter is obsolete. Let's prove it inside before we try and convince our customers.”

The lesson: The best product teams live inside their own product. By proving its value internally, Apple reinforced confidence in what it was creating, and set the tone for a culture of innovation that customers could feel.

Notion: Running Notion on Notion

Notion, an AI-powered workspace, perfectly demonstrates what it means to walk the talk. The company famously says, “We run Notion on Notion.”

Everything from documentation and product roadmaps to hiring, is managed within their own platform. As they put it, “We use Notion to build Notion.”

Notion’s team doesn’t just sell their product; they live it every day. It’s embedded in everything they do, which gives them a true understanding of their customers’ experience.

Amazon: Testing AWS on Itself

Before launching Amazon Web Services (AWS) to the public, Amazon used its own cloud infrastructure internally to power its e-commerce operations. This internal use proved its scalability and reliability long before it reached customers.

Build infrastructure for yourself first. Once it works for you, it’s ready for the world.

Why This Matters for Marketing

So why does any of this matter from a marketing perspective? Because authentic marketing starts from within.

As agency professionals, we spend so much time trying to understand our clients’ audiences, but the truth is, the best understanding comes from living the product or service ourselves.

When a brand uses its own product, it isn’t just running an internal test. It’s creating a culture where marketing becomes natural not forced. Here’s why that matters:

1. You Find the Real Story

2. It Builds Authentic Confidence

3. It Tightens the Feedback Loop

4. It Future-Proofs the Brand

The Agency Perspective

At the agency level, this principle changes everything. When we onboard a client, one of the first things we want to know is : “Use it. Experience it. Understand it.”

Because great marketing isn’t about telling people what a product does, it’s about showing them why it matters. And you can’t show that unless you’ve felt it yourself.

The brands that live their products don’t just build trust, they build momentum. Their marketing feels effortless because it’s grounded in truth.

So ask yourself:

Would you buy what you’re selling?

If the answer’s not an immediate “yes”, it might be time to start from within.