Applied Brand Science

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Applied Brand Science

We cut through brand bullsh*t with brand science. We show business leaders how to use brand science to build & grow thriving brands.

10/21/2026

"Advertising is a weak force made weaker by mostly being boring, bland, and forgettable."

Advertising is generally WAY less powerful than haters (or lovers) give it credit for. But it does add up slowly over time, like layers of paint at Rick Rubin's recording studio.

And it works a LOT better if people actually notice it. Remember it. And remember which brand it was for.

So DON'T BE BLAND.

Or, as The Most Interesting Man in the World once said, "Being boring is a choice. Those pleated khakis don't buy themselves."

10/20/2026

Why does it seem like doing "all the right things" in your industry can make you feel like a commodity?

I sat down with Jason Ulaszek, founder of Inzovu, and we went right at the sore spot: AI is commoditizing design work fast. And by copying the best firms in your category, you might be making yourself interchangeable.

So when does it pay to "zag"? Southwest broke airline rules & became the #1 airline in America. Apple broke all the beige computer rules of the '80s. The Savannah Bananas broke baseball rules. Most of those "rules" were never actual laws. They were just conventions everyone agreed to follow.

The key is knowing which rules to follow (e.g., airline safety & timeliness) and which to break (assigned seats, multiple aircraft, hub-&-spoke),

New Cover Brand clip is up. Full episode link in comments.

10/15/2026

Is advertising a "tax on the poor"?

There’s a popular theory in media circles that advertising is basically a "tax on the poor": that wealthy people will pay for premium ad-free tiers, while lower-income households are forced to "pay" with their attention.

It sounds like a logical, tidy economic theory. But the data says otherwise.

Antenna tracked subscribers across major streaming services. And they found ZERO significant differences in income, age, or ethnicity between the ad-free crowd and the ad-supported crowd.

Both rich and poor pay to skip ads, and both rich and poor watch them. In equal numbers.

Sometimes we expect buyers to behave like predictable spreadsheets. But humans are gloriously inconsistent:
- A wealthy person will cheerfully spend $100k on a car, then spend twenty minutes arguing over the price of strawberries.
- A broke student will splurge on a premium imported salumi, but sit through Hulu ads to save five bucks.

So be careful if you're still building your marketing strategy around rigid demos instead of needs and occasions.

10/14/2026

There's one week left to pre-order your limited-edition copy of
"THE LITTLE BOOK OF BRAND SCIENCE".

We're doing a limited-run hardcover printing with some special gifts for our early supporters.

The book captures the core of what I share in my talks and trainings, and it expands in some detail on the many myths in marketing and the scintillating "new" science of branding.

The book covers the core patterns and empirical behaviors of buyers, brands, and categories. It's theory AND practice. It's words AND pictures. It's even got a few charts. (I mean, it kinda has to.)

This edition is only in hardcover. The real, rub-it-with-your-hands, put-it-on-the-shelf-for-Zoom, smell-the-ink-on-the-pages kind. Softcover & audiobook forms will come later.

Books will be in your hands mid-November if all goes well. (We're trying to account for Hofstadter’s Law.)

➡ Pre-order here: appliedbrandscience.com/science-af/p/little-book-of-brand-science-by-ethan-decker-phd

And thank you! We're pretty excited.

10/13/2026

REBRANDINGS! Always a hugely touchy subject for companies. Especially founder-led, privately-held ones.

So what's a guy to do when he knows he needs to rebrand so the market understands what the company offers, but the owner doesn't see the upside, just the costs?

Tune into Cover Brand to hear Jason Clark, CMO of Tectonic, talk about his journey rebranding "eResources".

(Srsly. That was its name. Very early-2000s internet. Right up there with e-marketer, e-tailor, and Hotels.com ( ). Oy vey.)

Find Cover Brand wherever you pod.

10/08/2026

Is there a CRISIS of CHURN in B2B categories?

We tell ourselves that once a company finds a supplier they like—for SaaS, tax services, or equipment—they stick with them forever. Because switching is a giant pain.

But when you look at B2B retention data, that tidy picture of customer monogamy falls apart.

Median B2B churn rates range from 11% for utilities to 56% for wholesale supplies. 56%!

And if you’re a smaller brand, the physics are even harsher. Small brands always suffer from higher churn and lower repeat rates. It’s a statistical law of marketing called Double Jeopardy, and you can't bypass it with a better customer success program.

Are you dreaming of a fantasy of perfect loyalty? Or are you measuring against reality, adjusting for your "weight class" and finding a little wiggle in the laws?

Learn the laws so you know what's expected (what's normal) and what's really odd.

10/07/2026

"We are not superficial creatures. We are symbolic ones."

Think the biology professor in the 20-year-old suit and the $85 watch—the one who says "I don't think much about clothes"—doesn't care how he looks?

Oh, he does. Just as much as the Wall Street guy in the Italian suit and the $15,000 Rolex.

It's just that the biology professor is signaling something different from the CEO. Scholarship, not stocks. Learning, not leverage. Ants, not assets!

So wearing old suits ("it still fits just fine") and cheap watches ("they tell time as well as the fancy ones") doesn't mean he's not superficial. It just means he's symbolizing other things. Invisible things.

Same goes for your brand: your logo, your price, your packaging, how heavy your bottle is—it's all saying something. It's not superficial, it's symbolic. Even if the symbolism is "we're frugal" or "we love ants".

So the key question is, are they saying what you MEAN?

(PS: The book is up for pre-order. Heavy topics, light hand → https://vist.ly/5md3c)

10/06/2026

Mythbusting Time: "You can't succeed without a great plan. Plan first!"

When I talked with Dusty Gulleson, founder of Tectonic, he told me one of the biggest inflection points in his 27-yr-old company happened because he ran into the right person at the right moment at the right pizza parlor.

So much for planning, right? Sort of....

Your business is a complex system. Feedback loops, millions of people, competitor's activities, tons of variables in play. Success is a probability, not a guarantee. And waiting to do it perfectly will keep you from doing it at all.

There ARE laws in marketing. But they don't promise certainty. They do, however, increase the odds of success. But success is still a roll of the dice.

And finally, Eisenhower was right: "Plans are worthless, but planning is everything." Which is to say, the thinking and the scheming is a fabulous exercise. But be prepared to ditch the actual plan once you go out for pizza.

Full conversation with Dusty on Cover Brand is live today. Link in comments.

🔸 🔸 🔸

PS: Preorder your copy of THE LITTLE BOOK OF BRAND SCIENCE: https://vist.ly/5m88e

10/05/2026

I am veryvery much looking forward to speaking at the Leadership Summit later this month in California.

Ryan was kind enough to invite me, and I was kind enough to say "Oh hell yes!"

I'll be talking about marketing intuition and marketing mythology: what we get right, what we get wrong, and what we can all do better.

It's invitation only (it helps to know Ryan). But you can inquire at basis.com/event/brand-leadership-summit-2026.

10/03/2026

PROTEIN POP-TARTS? Srsly?? But wait!

The naïve hot take:

- Protein has jumped the shark (aka it's absurdly played out)
- Pop-Tarts doesn't understand its role in people's lives
- Pop-Tarts Protein won't sell because people don't want 'healthy' Pop-Tarts.
- These brand managers are idiots jumping on a fad

The more experienced, nuanced take:

- Maybe Protein gets Pop-Tarts extra feature & display at retail (F&D), which gets their brand in front of TONS more people who don't go down the 'toaster pastry' aisle.
- Maybe the retailers asked for it (nay, demanded it), so it improves trade relations with retail partners.
- If they get low on stock or sell out, they can restock these free-standing displays (FSDs) and end-caps—which are PRIMO real-estate—with regular Pop-Tarts.
- It's a real-world experiment that provides exceptional data about "purchase intent" for Protein Pop-Tarts, something they can only get a rough read on in concept tests.
- Maybe there's a swath of buyers for whom Protein is just the excuse they needed to pick up a box of Pop-Tarts this year. ("What the heck....")
- Protein is NEWS that Pop-Tarts can bring to retailers AND consumers, even if they mostly end up selling normal Pop-Tarts

- If it works out, wohoo!
- if it doesn't work out, they drop it like any other "in-&-out" / seasonal / ltd-ed SKU.

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