Walter White Reveals How To Make The Purest Product Possible For Your Customers

I would never advise any business owner to take a stab at the drug trade, but there is something to be learned about making a “pure” product for your market.

I believe it’s becoming common for business owners to THINK they know how their product can best help customers, relying on their gut rather than research.

It’s understandable if you think about it. These business owners toiled night and day to create something akin to a newborn baby. Something they believed would change lives.

Then customers come along and say they want something different? That can be infuriating!

At the end of the day though, the success of your product or service will be determined by how much you listen to your customers versus how much you listen to your own ego.

Will you give the customers what they want, or will you give them something you think they SHOULD want?

For today’s case study, let’s look at Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from the tv series Breaking Bad.

Walter White wanted to make a 99% pure methamphetamine product, which meant creating a drug with almost no impurities.

However, his partner Jesse felt like they already had a great product and didn’t want to change anything.

Here’s part of their conversation:

Jesse: The shit I cook is the bomb. So don’t be telling me…

Walter: The shit you cook is shit. I saw your setup. Ridiculous. You and I will not make garbage. We will produce a chemically pure and stable product that performs as advertised. No adulterance, no baby formula, no chili powder.

Jesse: No, no chili p is my signature!

Walter: Not anymore.

Jesse added chili powder to his cooking as his signature, but it was completely unnecessary. It didn’t add anything to the product, rather, it took away from its purity. He only wanted to keep it to satisfy his own ego.

Now it is important to note here. At this point, I believe Walter’s ego was also involved in this decision. He wanted to make a pure product partly to prove that he could do it.

But it’s different from the way Jesse’s ego was involved. Jesse merely wanted to add chili powder because it seemed cool and so that people would know it was his. He obviously didn’t care as much about purity.

Jesse believed cooking meth was closer to an art form rather than a science, meaning he could add his own flare and ingredients to the product and it wouldn’t matter.

It’s just my interpretation, but I believe Jesse didn’t care about the purity of the product because ALL meth on the market was of low quality. His own product was no better and no worse than anybody else’s.

And this is a big problem I’ve found with many businesses. Many people are satisfied with just being average.

But Walter White wasn’t having it.

In any case, the main reason why Blue Sky (the name of Walter’s meth product) took off the way it did was because it was almost 100% pure.

And because of this, it became the most popular product on the market.

Putting out a pure product as a copywriter means that all the data and research I do for an ad comes directly from the market.

I don’t throw in something that I THINK the market wants. I KNOW the market wants it, because the market told me so, whether it’s from interviews, testimonials, product reviews, whatever.

I’m not going to assume I know the market, nor will I throw in my own form of “chili powder” to satisfy my ego.

And I think it best if other businesses heed this lesson. It’s always better to give your customers what they want... 

...and keep your own ego out of it.

(As long as it’s legal, of course).

If you have a question or want to discuss a potential copywriting project with me, simply click “Contact” at the top of my website.