Abhilash Rao

the brand substitution test. If, in some marketing activity—an ad campaign, a viral video, a new product introduction—the brand were replaced by a competitive brand, then that marketing activity should not work as well in the marketplace. A well-positioned brand should be distinctive in its meaning and execution.

Here are five questions most likely to generate the best response for a customer testimonial: 1. What was the problem you were having before you discovered our product? 2. What did the frustration feel like as you tried to solve that problem? 3. What was different about our product? 4. Take us to the moment when you realized our product was

his book The Folly of Fools, Trivers argues that a contradiction lies at the heart of human intelligence. Our brains are simultaneously designed to seek out information and destroy that information after we acquire it. Specifically, our minds evolved to make sense of the world not in ways that are true, but in ways that help us survive. But once

Buying is no longer about getting things we need. It’s about reinforcing a set of beliefs we hold and share. Marketing is not about finding new ways to sell more of something. It’s about affinity more than it’s about price—feelings more than facts.

Category points-of-parity are attributes or benefits that consumers view as essential to a legitimate and credible offering within a certain product or service category. In other words, they represent necessary—but not sufficient— conditions for brand choice.