At the February 2025 Business Blueprint conference, marketing consultant and entrepreneur Marissa Candy delivered an energetic and insightful talk on what it means to be a “Rebel Marketer.”
Marissa has over 20 years of experience helping businesses achieve massive marketing breakthroughs. While on stage, she shared her rules for standing out, thinking differently and driving success.
Tip: Before you check out Marissa’s key takeaways, download Business Blueprint’s Ultimate Marketing Checklist. This will help you figure out exactly what’s missing in your marketing strategy.
9 Rules for Rebel Marketing
1. Clarity is Everything
According to Marissa, “If your message isn’t clear, people do nothing,” Whether it’s your brand name, tagline or website, if your audience doesn’t immediately understand what you offer, you’re making them hesitate—and hesitation kills conversions.
An example is a cosmetic clinic called ‘Joy by Nature’. While the name held personal significance for the owner, it was too vague for customers to immediately grasp what the business did. Simply adding “Cosmetic Clinic” clarified the offering and led to a surge in new clients.
2. Get out of Your Comfort Zone
“Success can lead to comfort zones, and staying there for too long is dangerous,” Marissa warns. True rebel marketers push boundaries and keep evolving.
She highlights how XXXX Gold, a long-time leader in the Australian beer market, lost its dominant position when it failed to update its branding and packaging. Meanwhile, Great Northern introduced a sleeker, more modern bottle that attracted a younger audience. By the time XXXX Gold reacted, it was falling behind.
The lesson? If you’re not consistently looking for ways to do things differently, a competitor will.
3. You are not Your Target Audience
“Your customers don’t think like you, act like you or make decisions like you do,” Marissa says. Yet, many business owners make marketing decisions based on personal preference rather than customer insights.
A great example is Tanzee, a sleep sack designed to protect bedding from fake tan stains. This product wasn’t created by a tanning brand but by a consumer who identified an unsolved problem. The takeaway? The best marketing comes from deeply understanding your audience’s frustrations and solving them.
4. You Don’t Have to be First—Just Better
Rebel marketers don’t always invent something new—they improve what’s already out there. Marissa pointed to ‘Before You Speak’ Coffee, a brand that disrupted the coffee industry by introducing instant coffee infused with health benefits.
This brand didn’t invent coffee; it just made it better. Instead of feeling pressured to create something from scratch, your business should look at existing products or services and find ways to improve them.
5. Deliver on Your Promises
Marketing is built on two things: what you promise and what you deliver. If you fail to meet expectations, trust erodes quickly.
Think about the infamous Fyre Festival—a luxury music festival that turned into a disaster because the organisers failed to deliver on their grand promises. According to Marissa, “You can say anything we want in marketing, but you have to make sure you can back it up.”
6. Give Before You Sell
Not all marketing should be about selling. “If you hold onto everything you know with clenched fists, you’ll grow slower,” Marissa says. Instead, businesses that share value upfront—through education, free resources or community engagement—build stronger customer relationships and brand loyalty.
7. Learn from Your Failures
Somewhere along the way, adults learn to fear failure, but in business, mistakes are inevitable—and valuable.
Marissa encourages business owners to document their marketing failures, not to dwell on them, but to ensure they aren’t repeated. Mistakes happen, but once they have been made, it’s important to create a system to prevent them from happening again.
“Fail fast, learn fast, and don’t pay twice for the same mistake.”
8. Keep the Momentum
One of the biggest marketing mistakes businesses make is stopping when things are going well. The classic tale is the business that halts all marketing efforts because they had enough business. Six months later, leads had dried up and restarting campaigns cost significantly more than maintaining them.
“Marketing is like a snowball rolling down a hill—the bigger it gets, the less effort it takes to keep it moving. But if you stop, you have to push it from the top again.”
9. Build your Personal Brand
A strong personal brand can open doors beyond just one business venture.
When you start a business, or if you already have, see if you can secure your own domain name and establish a personal online presence separate from your venture. This ensures that when you sell or pivot, your reputation and network remain intact.
The Rebel Marketer Mindset
Rebel marketing isn’t about being reckless—it’s about being bold, strategic and different. As Marissa explains: “Rebellion is about doing things differently and thinking outside the box.”
Whether it’s refining your message, shaking up an industry norm or staying visible when others disappear, the businesses that challenge the status quo are the ones that thrive.
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