Brand-and-Workflow Marketplace Defense
Reduce platform dependency by owning demand and embedding in transactions
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 97%
Barton uses a two-part defense when a digital marketplace depends on a larger platform for customers. First, build a giant brand that consumers know and love so most demand arrives directly through the company's app or site rather than through a single search supplier. Second, move deeper into the industry's workflow. Instead of remaining a lead middleman, build tools for participants, solve transaction problems, and, where appropriate, provide the platform on which transactions occur. This reduces exposure to a supplier such as Google moving vertically into reviews, bookings, or reservations. Zillow applies the strategy by combining direct consumer demand with an integrated rental and home-buying experience where professionals connect and users can progress through the workflow from end to end.
Origin
Barton explained the defense while contrasting Avvo's lead-middleman model with Zillow's deeper marketplace strategy.
Core principles
- 01Dependence on one customer source creates strategic exposure
- 02A known and loved brand brings customers directly
- 03Workflow integration makes a marketplace harder to bypass
- 04Transaction ownership captures more value than lead brokerage
How to run it
- 1
Audit dependencies
Identify any source supplying a disproportionate share of customers or inventory. Treat that concentration as strategic exposure.
Pro tip Include both paid and free traffic from the same platform in the concentration assessment.
Watch out A supplier can become a competitor by moving vertically into your market.
- 2
Create direct demand
Build a brand customers know and love strongly enough to visit the product directly. Make the consumer experience memorable and useful enough to earn habitual use.
Pro tip Product features that consumers discuss unprompted can accelerate direct brand demand.
Watch out Brand awareness without direct usage does not remove platform dependence.
- 3
Map the downstream workflow
Look beyond lead generation and document the work users and industry participants must complete afterward. Find friction that software can remove.
Pro tip Examine both the consumer journey and the professional tools needed to complete it.
Watch out Staying at the top of the funnel leaves the core transaction to others.
- 4
Become integral
Build tools and integrations that participants rely on during the workflow. Move toward enabling the transaction itself when that solves real customer problems.
Pro tip Connect all relevant professionals and steps within one coherent product experience.
Watch out Do not add workflow scope that fails to improve the customer outcome.
In the wild
Zillow built a widely recognized consumer brand that sources most customers directly. Its long-term strategy then moved deeper into rental and home-buying workflows, integrating the professionals and steps required for customers to complete their journey rather than acting only as a source of leads.
→ The company reduced acquisition dependence while embedding itself more deeply in the real-estate transaction.
Barton observed that companies dependent on Google for traffic became exposed as Google expanded from search into reviews, airline schedules, hotel bookings, and restaurant reservations. A marketplace that only collected search traffic and resold leads had little protection when its supplier entered the same vertical.
→ The pattern demonstrates why direct demand and workflow ownership are complementary defenses.
Common mistakes
Depending on one traffic source
Concentrated acquisition gives the supplier leverage and creates a single point of failure.
Remaining only a lead middleman
A marketplace that does not enter the workflow can be bypassed by suppliers, buyers, or the platform providing its traffic.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for vertical marketplaces that currently monetize leads while depending heavily on a dominant acquisition platform.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for businesses unable to support direct brand demand or add meaningful value inside the industry's workflow.
From the transcript
“Diversify your sources of customers and your sources of supply so that nobody gets too much leverage.”
“build a giant brand that customers know and love. And therefore, most of your traffic and customers comes directly to your app insights.”
“look down your funnel and look into the workflow of the business you're in.”
From the episode
#806: How Rich Barton Built Expedia and Zillow from $0 to $35B — Audacious Goals, Provocation Marketing, Scrabble for Naming, and Powerful Daily Rituals
Rich Barton