There’s a bookstore in Ginza that sells only one book. “A single room with a single book” is its tagline. Every week, the owner chooses the book, presents it in the center of the shop, and curates an exhibition with artworks, photographs, or related items around its subject matter. Entering his bookstore is like entering a book.

Direct-to-consumer model can only work if companies know who their customers are. Granular customer segmentation allows precision targeting, leads to better retention, and higher-value customer acquisition. Best approach here is to go beyond demographic and psychographic, and build taste profiles, like Netflix and TikTok do. Then, we will know whic

Regardless of how aggregate markets work, marketers love to assign every consumer choice with meaning and to provide infinite options to cater to consumer “uniqueness.”

A deep subculture entrenchment ensures that a company can maintain and enhance its difference as it scales. Patagonia’s long-term brand defensibility has more to do with it being able to believably connect with its community through the shared passion than if it had a proprietary product or acquisition channels.

This modern capital is also rooted in FOMO (fear of missing out) and in being in the know:

Desirability of something is today decoupled from its price, and its access is decoupled from wealth. Instead, it’s coupled with social capital, environmental creds, cultural savviness, a story, belonging, and its transformative potential to make us better humans.

Tone of voice is not a brand Being chatty, witty, and approachable only masks the missing cultural link that ensures brand durability. It also masks the missing unique value proposition. GMO brands do not compete on the actual business value, like technical innovation, design, or product quality. Away’s sells Muji knockoffs. Casper’s subway riddles

Veblen goods defy the traditional economic logic where a price of a good or service is inversely correlated with its demand. Instead, they are socially positional: high-end fashion, watches, cars, wine, organic food, travel experiences, and practices of self-actualization visibly and publicly convey the appearance of success, wealth, status, identi

despite the inherent unpredictability of consumer tastes and the complex way they interact, Venture Capitalists (VC) still put a heavy bet on pattern recognition. These patterns – be it a proprietary product, low-cost customer acquisition tactics, or the ability to reach scale fast – are hardly reliable predictors of success.