THE KNOWLEDGE BANK

Understanding People.
Building Better Brands.

An ongoing project of evidence-based guides to marketing science, consumer psychology and designing better strategy. Why? We're want to take decades of research and make it as simple as possible. But no simpler.

Knowledge is porridge.

Featured

Marketing Science

What is a Category Entry Point?

The buying moments that open the door into your market.

Latest Guides

Brand Memory

What are Distinctive Brand Assets?

The shortcuts your brain uses to recognise brands fast.

Behavioural Science

What is Costly Signalling?

Why the most believable messages are the hardest to fake.

Consumer Psychology

What is the Hot–Cold Empathy Gap?

Why your customer isn’t the person who made the plan.

Consumer Psychology

Why Don't Consumers Remember Our Ads?

Human memory simply doesn't work the way marketers assume it does.

MARKETING SCIENCE

What is Mental Availability?

Customers don't perform exhaustive research every time they buy coffee, insurance or whisky.

CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

Should We Lower Our Prices?

Customers don't buy prices. They buy explanations. Price doesn't exist on its own.

CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Why Do People Copy Each Other?

Humans copy because copying is usually smarter than starting from scratch.

MARKETING SCIENCE

What is the 95–5 Rule?

Why most of your future customers are not buying today

CULTURAL EVOLUTION

What is The Value of Influencers and Creators?

Creators aren't magical persuasion engines, but they are useful in a different way.

BRAND THEORY

What is a Brand, Really?

Why brands live in people’s minds and why companies can influence brands but never fully control them.

CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

What is Low Involvement Processing?

Why advertising often works below conscious attention, building memory over time.

MARKETING SCIENCE

What is The Double Jeopardy Law?

Why bigger brands have more customers who are also a bit more loyal.

TECHNOLOGY

Why does AI Reward Expertise Rather Than Replacing it?

Why what you can imagine depends on what you know.

STRATEGY

What is Chesterton's Fence?

Why businesses should understand why something exists before removing it.

MEDIA

How Much Do I Invest in Brand Building and Performance?

Performance marketing harvests demand. Brand building grows the crop

MEDIA

How Do Markets Really Work?

The NBD Curve and why 'light' buyers matter.

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