Trust me - it's fake

Hi there,

Hello from Southern Turkey. Yesterday we wandered through the local markets — where the main attraction isn’t the food or the weather, but the fake branded goods.

And locals aren’t ashamed of it; quite the opposite.

Years ago, in Istanbul, one store owner famously grinned at me and said, “Yes, fake, but genuine fake.”

I laughed, but he wasn’t joking. He was simply building his own version of trust; not hiding the truth, but owning it.

When “real” isn’t enough

In product marketing, we talk about value constantly; how to position it, price it, communicate it.

But customers don’t measure value by what you’ve built. They measure it by how much they trust the promise behind it.

Without trust, even the best product feels like a “genuine fake.”

Promises mean nothing without belief

Every buying decision runs through the same silent filter:

“Do I trust this will do what it says?”

When belief is shaky, messaging can’t fix it. When belief is strong, even the simplest products command a premium.

Proof over promises

Think about how you pick a restaurant abroad. You don’t read the menu first — you read verifiable reviews. Each positive story reduces risk and raises value in your mind. Before TripAdvisor, it was just word of mouth.

That’s exactly how customers evaluate your product. Because proof replaces uncertainty.

Turning trust into traction

I’m currently running a reviews project for a scaling product. We’re not chasing stars for the sake of optics; we’re building proof that shortens the distance between curiosity and trust.

But reviews are only one piece of the puzzle. The bigger job is making belief easy.

Here’s how to go beyond reviews to build trust and perceived value:

Three levers to build trust (beyond reviews)

1) Evidence before promise: Show, don’t tell. Use demos, screenshots, and quantified outcomes instead of abstract claims.

Example: “teams saved 960 hours a year and improved quality by 300%.”

Value feels real when it’s evidenced, not explained.

2) Transparent confidence: The most trustworthy products admit imperfection. Tell buyers what you’re not built for; the trade-offs they’ll have to make. Make pricing easy to interpret and support promises easy to find.

Trust grows faster when customers don’t have to decipher your value prop or pricing.

3) Borrowed authority: When you’re not famous yet, lean on others who are. Share customer stories, integrations, certifications. Use micro-stories: quotes, short videos, LinkedIn mentions. Create “peer signals” — show how similar people use your product.

Borrowed trust converts faster than owned trust.

Get this right - demand takes care of itself

As you scale, trust becomes your compound interest. Some say strong brands build trust. I’d argue trustworthy products build brands.

Each customer who believes reinforces your value story, and carries it further than any ad budget could.

So instead of asking, “How do we communicate our value?” Ask, “How do we make trust and belief in our product effortless?”

Speak soon,

Peter

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