Brand is the new Hansel (so hot right now)

The brands wining today are those that are firmly rooted in the fundamentals of meaningful difference and are five times more likely to grow penetration than their competitors.

The blueprint for success has not changed. Build a brand consumers find meaningfully different, and the next platform shift becomes an opportunity rather than a threat.

The value of brand compounds over time.

The best time to start building a brand was 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 years ago. The second best time to start is today.

via Kantar

AGI is incredible at synthesizing information, but it cannot tell a story with soul because it has never lived, never failed, and never felt anything. AGI prints content; humans respond to story.

Leaving aside the fact that this is output from AI (that’s what it’s supposed to say, right?), this is the path forward.

It’s not about flooding the zone.
Find the resonance.
Tell a story.
Be human.

After April’s confidence number was revised up a point, it dipped back to start May (though just above April’s original number).

War-induced inflation is making the present moment a downer, but those surveyed are still optimistic about near-term business conditions.

References to prices and oil and gas increased in frequency for a second consecutive month, while mentions of war, geopolitics, and conflict remained elevated—likely signaling consumers’ underlying concerns about the inflationary impacts of the war in the Middle East on their wallets.

For reasons related to what Benedict Evans calls out here (which is very much worth a read),it’s time to develop a good understanding of Gell-Mann Amnesia.

Per Wiktionary:

The phenomenon of a person trusting newspapers for topics which that person is not knowledgeable about, despite recognizing the newspaper as being extremely inaccurate on certain topics which that person is knowledgeable about.

Our hype detectors need to be well tuned. Testing the new on what we know is a good foundational practice.