Spent some time with Jay Friedman talking about the martech ecosystem.
Thousands of tools now & AI makes it easy to launch a product site that looks convincing.
So marketers fall back on signals & shortcuts.
Jay’s building Cartograph to map the vendor landscape.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarTech
Being first can help, but it’s not destiny. Many first movers succeed, but many fail too. Later entrants can learn and improve. Followers often refine the idea and win the market. In brand science, context matters. First-mover advantage belongs in the category of “it depends.”
#BrandLaws
Wonder why your super-optimized funnel still isn't delivering? Check the buyer model. Most marketing is built for a rational decision-maker who doesn't exist. Real buyers are mental misers. Nothing worse than doing the wrong things efficiently.
#BrandScience
When the mission feels big, the instinct is to go everywhere at once.
Totally makes sense. Also, not how movements start.
Talked with Karen Moore recently about colorism, awareness, and why Philadelphia might be exactly the right place to begin.
#AppliedBrandScience #BrandStrategy
Brand loyalty is mostly a myth. Data shows that across nearly every category, buyers don't have one favorite—they have a repertoire. Your customers aren't loyal; they're just occasionally repeat. Stop fighting gravity and start building for how people actually buy.
#AppliedBrandScience #BrandLaws
You can trade a bit of future demand
for a bit of right-now performance.
We all do it.
Just… worth noticing that it’s a trade.
#Marketing #BrandStrategy
Chelsea Burns is one year into building her company.
And now the harder question: what is this thing actually going to be?
We talked about focus, talking to customers, and discovering the brand in the market—not in a doc.
#AppliedBrandScience #BrandStrategy #Entrepreneurship
We assume a pretty package sells, but buyers are mental misers, not art critics. What actually predicts sales?
Don’t rely on “liking.” Just because people like a package doesn’t mean they’ll buy it.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality #BrandStrategy
Fun conversation with Nic Hinwood this week.
He runs a branding agency in Tamworth, Australia. Strong shop. Yet the town name alone sometimes nudges prospects toward bigger-city firms.
We explored the tiny cues people use to size up a business. I call it the car-door sound.
#AppliedBrandScience
I’m writing The Little Book of Brand Science. It’s going to separate the actual laws of brand growth from the usual marketing malarkey.
Get on the waitlist, and I’ll let you know the moment it’s finally finished and out in the real world.
#AppliedBrandScience
Ad agencies love young people. We say it’s for "fresh ideas," but it’s often about cheap labor and hustle culture. Experience is a lever we stopped pulling.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality
We spend months in conference rooms debating our brand values. But busy buyers don't read manifestos. They react to our return policies, our pricing, & our packaging. What happens to your strategy when you stop managing your philosophy and start mapping your physics?
#BrandScience #MarketingReality
You can’t sell sriracha to people who hate spice.
Victoria Carrington Chávez and I talked identity, confidence, and why pointy brands win.
Stop convincing the wrong room.
Signal to the right one.
#BrandScience #CoverBrand #Marketing
We’re told Gen Z buys "purpose." But the data shows they mostly buy Pringles, Nike, and Google. They aren't a new species of activist shopper; they're just mental misers like the rest of us. Availability beats virtue almost every time.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality
We treat marketing laws like speed limits we can ignore if we’re clever enough. But the reality of how buyers behave is like gravity. You can’t negotiate with it in a conference room.
What happens to your strategy when you finally stop fighting physics?
#BrandScience #MarketingReality
We confuse "looking professional" with "looking trustworthy." Usually, it just means "looking invisible." If your brand fits in too well, nobody can see it. Sometimes you need a mascot in a raccoon suit just to prove you have a pulse.
#CoverBrand
Still the only pie chart I will use.
Happy Pi day, nerds.
(And yes, there are real reasons for my pie chart vitriol.)
#DataScience #DataVisualization #BigData
The natural state of memory is decay. We forget keys, names, and brands constantly. It’s not a marketing failure; it’s a biological law called the Forgetting Curve. You have to do 200% just to stay where you are. Repetition isn't a strategy; it's survival.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality
The green mermaid has almost nothing to do with coffee.
That’s why it works.
Buyers don’t store arguments.
They store cues.
Most brands try to persuade in the moment of purchase.
Strong brands build memory long before that moment arrives.
#BrandScience #Marketing #DistinctiveAssets
We confuse niche with small. But in branding, specificity creates value. If you solve a painful problem for a specific group, you don't need to be everything to everyone. You just need to be essential to them. #CoverBrand
We assume "high satisfaction" = "high growth." But the data suggests otherwise. Niche brands have high scores because they serve fans. Giant brands have lower scores because they serve everyone. A dip in CSAT might just mean you're reaching the mass market.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality
Most marketing debates aren’t about creative.
They’re about assumptions.
People buy repertoires.
They know shockingly little about most brands.
They spend most of their lives not shopping.
If your questions ignore that, your insights will too.
Start with buyer reality.
#BrandScience
We kept noticing how often luxury shows up as restraint, not excess.
Less noise. Fewer steps. More memory.
Harder to do than it looks.
#BrandScience #Marketing #BrandExperience #LuxuryThinking #CoverBrand
Brands don’t grow on vibes.
They grow on laws.
From PhD biologist to brand scientist—this is the story behind Applied Brand Science.
vist.ly/4tg36
#BrandScience #Marketing #Effectiveness #Growth
Stop optimizing for the click. CTR is a terrible success metric that has almost no correlation with ROI or brand growth. It measures immediate reaction, not lasting retention. You’re building a brand, not a click farm.
#AppliedBrandScience #MarketingReality
We confuse brand refresh with progress.
But usually, changing your look just resets your recognition to zero. If your assets aren't consistent, you're asking the customer to do the cognitive work of finding you all over again. And they usually won't.
#BrandScience #MarketingReality
Sebastian Hidalgo and I spent this episode talking through a simple tension:
From the inside, consistency feels repetitive.
From the outside, it feels reliable.
Music, brands, and why recognition usually does more work than novelty on Cover Brand.
#BrandScience #AppliedBrandScience #CoverBrand
ROI feels logical. It’s easy to calculate.
And it’s a terrible way to measure ad effectiveness.
It misses long-term effects, future buyers, and future cash flow.
Use ROI for efficiency.
Not effectiveness. Please lord no.
#marketing #advertising #brandscience
Not everything that matters is measured.
And not everything that’s measured matters.
Short-term metrics feel reassuring.
But long-term brand effects — memory, availability, future demand — do the real work.
Start with how buyers think. Then choose metrics.
#brandscience #marketing #branding
