Better marketing analytics can free 15–20% of marketing spending.*

Dull US advertising would require $189B in additional media investment** to match the predicted results of non-dull ads.

Different research. Different definitions. Different parts of marketing.

And only part of the bill.

* McKinsey & Company
** System1 + eatbigfish

One reasonable commitment. Then another.

A new trend. A new priority. A new technology. A new strategy.

None has to be catastrophically wrong. But every decision leaves something behind. A precedent.

And precedent changes what feels reasonable next time.

EVERY YES TRAINS THE NEXT YES.

Eventually, a company can make a long series of perfectly reasonable decisions—and become less itself.

A Dense Idea keeps a company recognizably itself while everything around it changes.

It isn’t a tagline, campaign or set of guidelines.

Consistency repeats.
Coherence connects.
Density generates.
Compounding endures.

Consequential marketing decisions deserve independent scrutiny.

Product. Price. Place. Promotion.

Put the decision before the Bench.

BENCH↗

Kill Dull is independent by design.

A company cannot buy an AAH.
It cannot negotiate away a DULL.
And HMM. means we’re not convinced yet.

Published Readings cannot be commissioned, suppressed or changed by the companies they examine.

Private Readings are paid for.
The judgment isn’t.

AAH. HMM. DULL.