Welcome to the digital high school cafeteria where everyone competes for attention with louder claims, flashier presentations, and more outrageous promises.

Have you joined the performance circus or are you building something serious?

When faced with a deluge of information, many a marketer will fall prey to the data dredging trap, leading to drawing false conclusions from the random patterns that appear. Those patterns can appear remarkably convincing, especially when analyzing multiple variables simultaneously. This "data dredging" effect explains why so many research findings fail to replicate and why misleading correlations flood social media and information outlets

Market sizing blends analytical rigor with strategic judgment. Demand curves defy mathematical functions, data fragments and biases proliferate, and disruptive technologies redraw boundaries overnight. Therefore, responsible practitioners run sensitivity analyses, triangulate top-down and bottom-up approaches, and openly disclose assumptions.

What is most interesting is that we are seeing the shift from making great ads, hoping people remember you later when it's time to buy, to being present in the precise moment someone decides to trust a recommendation, either from an algorithm, a human, or both. When AI recommends Cetaphil on the spot, people buy. Not because they were manipulated, but because they were helped.

When resources tighten, average marketing teams scatter across channels, hoping something sticks. But we know that repeated exposure increases preference, and your audience needs multiple touch points with your message to convert, not single exposures across scattered channels.

Your highest contribution lies beyond your current competencies, but that current state also creates a blind spot that keeps you trapped in what you know instead of exploring what you could become. Ergo, excellence in the wrong areas prevents excellence in the right ones.

You can't force a breakthrough campaign. You can't manufacture genuine brand passion. But you can plant seeds and create the environment where marketing mastery grows. Those seeds might not sprout for months or years. Plant enough seeds and tend the soil consistently, and breakthroughs will bloom.

• Is it testable?
• Can you prove or disprove it?
•If you reversed your hypothesis, would you care about the difference it would make to your overall logic?
• If you shared your hypothesis with any other stakeholder, would it sound naive or obvious?
• Does it point directly to an action or actions that you might take?

There's a difference between marketers who follow trends and those who create them. The gap isn't talent or luck, it's philosophy. The masters I've studied, who built empires from ideas, all shared certain beliefs that guided their decisions. What are some of those beliefs? I can't believe you asked...

Marketing practitioners understand features and benefits, but we sometimes struggle with narrative momentum. We often connect campaign elements with "and" thinking, creating flat, predictable sequences that fail to engage audiences. Effective marketing stories require "but" and "therefore" connections. These words signal shifts, build tension, and drive audiences forward through your message.

When you can’t nail your routine, or when, for whatever reason, your routine doesn’t leave you feeling energized or “ready,” it’s so easy to hit the mental eject button: today’s just not my day. But this isn’t necessarily true. Yes, routines really can help. Yes, every great performer uses routines. Yes, you should probably have a few routines yourself. But they are not destiny.

Like any creative endeavor, each campaign represents an experiment with unknowable outcomes. This uncertainty bogs down marketers who expect guaranteed results before investing resources. Marketing campaigns exist in a space that resists predictability and is filled with false expectations.

We mostly hear about the winners (like Facebook and Apple), not the many entrepreneurs who tried similar approaches and failed. This creates a false picture that can lead to poor business decisions.

Picture yourself walking through a graveyard where only the fanciest tombstones still stand. Time crumbled away the simple ones. Looking around, you might think everyone buried here was wealthy. You're just seeing the survivors.

Bad marketing persists and may get worse as the creation speed increases and barriers to launch evaporate. I see three factors driving this phenomenon:
First, marketing has democratized. Everyone with a product or idea now does marketing, regardless of skill, understanding, ot training. The sheer volume guarantees diminishing quality and effectiveness. Second, most people handling marketing excel elsewhere. The artisanal baker knows bread, not positioning. The hospital administrator understands healthcare systems, but less so, if at all, emotional storytelling. Most professionals treat marketing as an afterthought. Third, marketing lacks clear feedback mechanisms. Without definitive standards or immediate consequences, practitioners struggle to evaluate their work objectively, resulting in failures being misidentified as missed opportunities rather than catastrophes.

Creating the conditions for the word to spread is the job of the marketer. Spreading the word is the job of the customer. Great brand marketing doesn’t just promote a product. It creates an emotional container people want to step into and incorporate into their lifestyle, and tell other people about.