#66: Alexander Holzknecht, Managing Director of Caseking, on why you can't outperform a bad assortment

I would say the next question, because you had this really amazing line when we were talking and you said you cannot outperform a bad assortment.

So the question is, a perfect assortment with mediocre marketing or a mediocre assortment with world-class marketing?

And this is my personal belief, but I truly believe you can not outperform assortment.

And I think this is sometimes, you know, when you have these conversations with like other senior leaders, like you always end up on, okay, your marketing stack and you're like, what are you doing on UI and UX and all of that? Like we focus so much on that.

And sometimes we forget that it ends and starts with the product.

Like if the product you offer, if the proposition to your customer is not on point, and then it's just getting incredibly expensive.

Yeah.

I think the product actually justifies what you're doing.

And then the marketing, you know, and this prepares the stage and the UI actually removes the friction.

Like all of that is extremely relevant.

Yeah.

But you've got to start with the product.

And if that's not there, the rest is actually just wasting time and money.

So why do you think people are typically jumping towards the marketing and the UX and all of those things and typically skipping the start point, which is the product assortment? Is marketing easier to deal with?

Let's not say it's easier.

But I understand that sometimes you hit certain barriers with your product.

And then you start to panic and then you try to find a shortcut and then you try to fix a bit.

Okay, let's, you know, then we need to throw more money into performance marketing.

And then you understand, okay, wait, that's not helping.

That's just expensive.

And then you try to focus on, okay, then how can I improve my performance marketing? And then you understand, okay, wait, that's not helping.

And then someone, but maybe if we just have like a smoother checkout flow, because the problem in the beginning is so hard to crack.

but it's even more rewarding or worth it to actually trying to figure out that first because that's the amplifier this is where you know the exponential leverage actually comes from if you fix that part the assortment then the rest will actually really on like then you reveal like the real you know magic that all these other parts can actually do to it But it really compounds.

I think that is the important idea.

And