Have you ever heard of Tesla? Of course, you have.
But have you ever seen a Tesla ad? Probably not.
Despite no major ad campaigns until 2023, Tesla became the first electric vehicle company to scale successfully.
How? Through a combination of media attention (Elon Musk), word-of-mouth, and a product that generated buzz on its own.
The lesson here is simple: if your product isn’t worth the hype, no marketing budget can save it.
While many businesses simply launch a product and expect marketing to carry the weight, full-service agency Digital Silk knows better. Their approach starts with a viable product or service — one that has a clear audience fit and a unique value proposition.
In this interview, Digital Silk Founder and CEO Gabriel Shaoolian discusses:
- The key challenges businesses face when establishing a digital presence and scaling
- Why startups should launch with an MVP
- How the company supports startups with limited budgets
- Why a great product or service is more important than a strong marketing campaign for business growth
- The most successful ways to promote a brand in 2025
Who Is Gabriel Shaoolian?
Gabriel is a digital expert who has over 25 years of experience in leading digital projects. He has worked with businesses across industries, from startups to Fortune 500 companies such as Microsoft and giants like the IMF and NASA. Gabriel is also a columnist and contributor in The New York Times, American Express, Forbes, and Entrepreneur.
Working with businesses of different sizes and industries, Digital Silk has witnessed firsthand how every client, from startup to large enterprise, faces unique obstacles in its digital journey.
Startups, mid-sized companies, and enterprise-level companies as well as institutions, face specific challenges when it comes to building a digital presence.
Here's what Gabriel has observed to be some of these struggles:
- Startups: Funding can be a limiting factor for startups. When launching a new brand, they're not going to make immediate profit. They need to invest and hang in there, especially when it comes to eCommerce, which is plagued by loss leaders.
- Mid-sized companies: Time allocation is their biggest issue. Working with an agency is a collaborative process and businesses should understand that dedicating time and resources internally is key to ensuring success. Regular communication and feedback are essential for a productive partnership.
- Enterprise-level companies and institutions: Although larger companies are staffed to provide the time and resources needed to get things done, sometimes, bureaucracy still gets in the way of true efficiency.
Startups, especially, have a harder time solidifying their digital presence, so patience and focus are key.
However, beyond managing resources effectively, it may be worth exploring potential investors who can support the brand's growth journey.
In a previous podcast, DesignRush spoke to Codacy co-founder and CEO Jaime Jorge who discusses the best ways to find investors for your startup.
Watch the video to learn more:
Launching with a minimum viable product (MVP) is also a crucial strategy that will significantly benefit startups. How so?
Even though an MVP is mostly associated with software development and testing, it also plays a major role in marketing in a number of ways:
- Helping validate ideas in the market
- Improving products based on user feedback
- Building a brand around responsiveness and customer-focused innovation
For these reasons, Gabriel recommends that startups begin their marketing journey with an MVP.
“I love working with startups because I always tell them to come out with an MVP. Don't overboard. Just come out with an MVP, test it in the market, and invest in your marketing.
And let your consumers tell you how they wanna see it improve and what they want. Let them tell you what they want,” he says.
Launching with an MVP gives startups the flexibility to test their ideas and adapt based on real customer feedback, making it a more practical and customer-focused way to grow right from the start.
Proven Brand Strategies to Consider from the Start
While a quality product or service forms the foundation for business growth, effective brand promotion is crucial in achieving true and lasting success.
Gabriel shares five proven brand strategies that will help your business build credibility and drive long-term growth and stability:
- Failing to plan is planning to fail: A solid brand strategy includes defining the target audience and understanding the unique value proposition.
- Find out where your audience is and meet them there: Once the target audience is defined, businesses should select marketing channels accordingly. For instance, LinkedIn works particularly well for B2B, whereas platforms like TikTok and Instagram resonate more with younger demographics.
- Win your audience’s heart: It’s important not just to focus on age or demographics but also on the interests of your target audience. For example, using 2025 Instagram trends and TikTok will work for younger people in leisure while LinkedIn is more suited for professional content.
- Be authentic and honest in marketing: Don’t make exaggerated claims because consumers can easily see through them, and this can damage brand credibility.
- Speak their language, know their pain: A successful marketing strategy speaks directly to a specific problem the audience faces rather than making grand, general statements.
Is Budget a Limiting Factor in Building a Successful Brand?
There’s no denying that building a brand isn’t easy, regardless of the budget size. Many small businesses seek the help of experienced agency partners to realize their goals.
Gabriel explains that at Digital Silk, the agency approaches brands with fewer resources structurally — by defining the dynamic and expectations of the partnership, which is incredibly effective.
Essentially, brands should be able to trust that the agency will be able to deliver what was agreed upon within the constraints of the budget.
“When you hire an agency, what you're hiring them to do is to bring your brand concept to life, do the brand strategy, and create the digital presence for it, meaning create the website, make sure the website's optimized, and then do the digital marketing to drive traffic to your website,” he says.
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Once the website is in place and customers start interacting with the brand, he suggests focusing on providing top-notch customer service.
“If you’re selling a product, make sure shipment methods are available. If you’re offering a service, make sure people are getting back to leads as they come in, ideally within minutes, and definitely no more than 24 hours.
You don’t want to lose a potential customer because of slow responses," he adds.
Gabriel recommends customer service is handled internally — outsourcing simply won’t do because a third party won’t fully understand the company’s culture or tone.
A Great Product Matters More Than a Strong Marketing Campaign
Gabriel believes that even if you run the best marketing campaigns in the world, no agency can help if the product or service is not worth the hype.
It has to have a distinct user and value proposition, which will go hand in hand with branding.
“The branding is what defines what is unique about your company and your company's solution. The branding then asks, ‘How does it suit the target audience's needs?’ It identifies a target audience.
When you launch a product or service, you need to know who you're building it for. It's not everything for everybody. When a client says, ‘This is everything for everybody,’ you know that you're in trouble.
Your brand is in trouble because you haven't done enough due diligence to know that if you want to succeed, you need to create a unique solution for a niche target audience and grow it from there,” Gabriel explains.
As per Gabriel, these are the most immediate steps to launch a product or service successfully:
- Have a unique solution
- Know who the target audience is
- Know where you're starting (a niche category in a specific area, the entire U.S., or globally)
Previously, we spoke to Leo Burnett CMO Emily Doskow who shared why branding is no longer just about ad campaigns.
Watch the video to learn more:
I agree that marketing should always be genuine and transparent, as over-the-top claims easily raise eyebrows.
Gabriel shares a great example of Ogilvy's campaign for Dove, where the agency focused on solving a real issue — softening hands while washing dishes.
“Notice how the campaign spoke directly to the target audience by addressing a real pain point — their hands drying out after washing dishes.
Instead of making exaggerated claims like ‘Dove is the best soap ever,’ they kept the message simple and relatable: ‘It softens hands.’
This approach shows the importance of clearly communicating what your product does and how it benefits the user, without relying on vague or overly broad statements,” he says.
Authenticity, collaboration, and a thorough understanding of your audience’s needs are paving the way for brand growth in 2025.
This is why Digital Silk's approach to promoting brands online goes beyond traditional marketing strategies.
It’s about building brands that resonate with their audience by first creating a solid product or service, backed by a clear value proposition.
For businesses seeking a trusted partner in navigating the complexities of digital branding and marketing, Digital Silk offers the expertise and dedication to help them stand out in a crowded market.
