Your product isn't as unique as you think it is

Jon put it bluntly: "There's too much good product out there. You can't differentiate on tech and specs. It's hard to find bad products." The outdoor industry learned this the hard way. When everyone has moisture-wicking fabric and waterproof zippers, talking about thread count becomes white noise. So brands like Yeti stopped selling coolers and started selling a lifestyle. They stopped competing on insulation specs and started owning a cultural position.

For 2026: Run a competitive analysis focused on messaging, not features. Jon does this with every client. The visual exercise alone opens eyes when brands realize they're saying the same things to the same people as their top five competitors. If your differentiation only shows up on a spec sheet, you don't have differentiation.

White space isn't found in products, it's found in positioning

Jon walks brands through a deep dive that combines competitive landscape analysis with customer data, reviews, order history, actual behavior. The goal isn't to find a product gap. It's to find a positioning gap. He creates personas based on real customer data, then maps where competitors are clustering their messaging. The white space becomes obvious when you stop looking at what products exist and start looking at who's being ignored or spoken to generically.

For 2026: Stop asking "What makes our product different?" Start asking "Who are we speaking to that nobody else is?" Then build creative assets specifically for those three or four personas. It's harder to execute, but it's the only way to avoid blending into the feed.

Baseline content + surge campaigns beats pure seasonality

Jon used to advise brands to pull back during slow seasons. Not anymore. His approach now: establish an evergreen baseline that always runs: i.e. proven creative, core product offerings, foundational messaging. Then layer seasonal campaigns on top when you need to surge. This gives you consistency in the algorithm, budget predictability, and the flexibility to move fast when opportunities arise. The outdoor industry is hyper-seasonal, but brands that maintained baseline presence year-round stopped fighting the algorithm every time they ramped back up.

For 2026: Audit your current approach. If you're going dark for months then trying to rebuild momentum, you're burning budget and momentum. Build your always-on foundation first. Then add seasonal amplification on top of it.

Simplicity scales better than complexity
Jon's example: Rumple, the blanket company. Their Q4 campaign was just color. That's it. They leaned into their color story across all channels. Simple product, simple message, massive reach. This isn't about dumbing down your brand. It's about clarity. When Jon works with brands stuck in technical jargon, the breakthrough moment comes when they realize complexity is a crutch. If you can't explain your differentiation simply, you probably have confusion.

For 2026: Test this. Take your current positioning and explain it in one sentence to someone outside your industry. If they don't immediately get what makes you different, you have work to do.