Starting a business is risky—half die by year five, only one in five hits 21, but if you make it past four years, survival shoots to 90%.

Is first-mover advantage real—or just marketing mythology dressed up as science?

Should we stop making sweeping claims about Gen Z and Boomers? Yep—most ‘generational differences’ are really just smooth, age-old trends.

McKinsey found shoppers consider shockingly few brands—about four for cars and fewer than two for computers.

Most ads fade fast—but Geico’s ‘Hump Day’ proved that tying your brand to a recurring trigger can make it pop every single Wednesday.

Marketers fear haters, but the real problem is indifference—most people don’t dislike your brand, they just don’t notice it.

Before freaking out over low brand scores, check your weight class—big brands always rate higher on every attribute. It’s a law of branding.

Do the laws of brand science apply to nonprofits? Yep—swap ‘customers’ for ‘donors,’ and the banana curve still holds.

Ipsos and JKR found your most powerful brand asset isn’t your logo—it’s your product itself, like Oreos, Ray-Bans, and Legos.

Designalytics and IRI found that when testing new packaging, ‘liking’ doesn’t predict success—but a few other metrics definitely do.

In marketingland, buyer models range from the rational economist to the spherical physicist—but only one actually fits how people buy.

Should you let the public design your brand? Probably not—just ask Ulster, NY, where 93% voted for a weird spiderface sticker.

We think college is a loyalty purchase—pick a school, love it forever—but the data tell a much messier story.

We love the myth of the tiny brand with die-hard fans—but in kombucha and beyond, the data say big brands win on loyalty too.

Everyone’s flattening their logos to look modern and minimal—and ending up looking exactly like everyone else.

Communicus found that 80% of new ad campaigns perform worse than the proven ones they replaced—so maybe don’t kill what’s working.

The 80/20 rule is old—1896 old—but new data from 330 companies shows Pareto’s math doesn’t hold up quite the way we think.

Antenna found that rich or poor, we skip—or sit through—ads in about equal measure.

Gen Z says they love purpose—but when asked to rate their favorite brands, purpose barely makes the list.

Common sense says bigger share means bigger profits—but the data doesn’t exactly agree.