Thinking in funnels is a mental model that breaks down your goals into different stages. So you can improve the conversion at each stage to achieve the best possible outcomes. We’ll start with a marketing story from the 1890s to understand how it was born. And finish with how to think in funnels. Let’s go.…
Category: How Brands Win
The Law of Diminishing Returns: How To Do More With Less
What is the law of diminishing returns? The law of diminishing returns is a concept from economics that indicates after a certain point, increasing only one input starts producing fewer returns. Let’s see how Henry Ford used it to increase the productivity of Ford workers with fewer working hours. And how you can do the…
How To Think In Systems (And Why McDonald’s Has a University)
Ray Kroc was a milkshake mixer salesman. One day, he received an order of 8 mixers from an unknown restaurant. He didn’t believe it at first. 8 mixers could make 48 milkshakes at once. Why would a single restaurant need that many milkshakes? So he decided to visit the restaurant to see what was going on. And…
Salience Bias: How to Become Unforgettable
In 2011, Patagonia made an unusual advertising campaign. They told people the opposite of what a clothing brand wants customers to do. “Don’t buy this jacket.” And you know the best part? They published it on Black Friday. So imagine this. You open a newspaper that day and see pages of ads from different brands.…
Uncertainty Matrix: How To Deal With Uncertainty (And Gain From It)
In early 2002, the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq. To put the plan into action, they started working on shaping public opinion. The main argument was Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction.” But the press was not convinced. In one of the news briefings, journalists questioned Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of…
Critical Mass In Business: How To Reach “The Success Moment”
Everything is hard at the beginning. Started a business? Good luck finding your first 50 customers. New social media account? Getting your first 10,000 followers takes forever. People put in the effort (and money) for months, but don’t get any visible return back. It’s frustrating. So most people quit at this stage. Crossing the valley of…
Synergy In Business: How YouTube went from near failure to global dominance
In April 2005, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim uploaded the first video on the platform: Me at the zoo. And the platform went live. The founders expected YouTube to succeed. But nobody imagined it would happen that fast. People loved uploading and watching videos. In one year, YouTube reached 25 million daily views. And new users kept coming.…
Sustainable Competitive Advantages: Become Irreplaceable (With Examples)
“In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable ‘moats.’” That’s how Warren Buffett answered a question on what he looks for in a business to invest in. What did he mean by a moat? Let me explain with an example. Everybody can make a caffeinated soda. But for a new competitor, beating the…
How To Beat Bigger Competitors: Blitzkrieg
The German army shocked the world when they entered Paris in 1940. On paper, the French army was ready before the invasion. They expected an attack. So they bolstered their defenses for years. They even built the “impregnable” Maginot line, a 280-mile-long fortification. But the Germans defeated the French army in only 6 weeks. How was it possible?…
Mimetic Desires: Why We Copy Others (And Why It Matters)
Paul Graham wrote about cities and ambition 14 years ago. Each great city has a message. New York tells you to have more money. Silicon Valley whispers to you to get more power. Los Angeles shouts at you to become more famous. Other cities tell you to be smarter, become an insider, or have a better quality of life. And this message…