Marketing Mental Models: What Separates Great Brands from Average Ones
- Chandler Lyles
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Most entrepreneurs think marketing is about buying attention. But the best founders know it’s about multiplying emotion and awareness to create influence. That’s the kind of thinking that separates great brands from forgettable ones. These are some of our favorite marketing mental models that will help you shift your thinking, sharpen your marketing strategy, and stop wasting money on marketing that doesn't move your business in the direction you want to go.
1. Emotion x Awareness = Influence
“The way you get influence is you cause somebody to have an emotion and you multiply it by awareness.”
This is the core formula that drives all great marketing. Chandler argues that influence is earned by triggering real emotion in your customer, then amplifying it with consistent exposure.
Big emotions × lots of attention = big influence.
Boring ads × massive budget = wasted money.
📌 Mental Model: You can’t outspend your way to influence. You have to earn it emotionally first.
2. Don’t Bankrupt the Brand or the Business
“Every decision I make, I run through one filter: Don’t let it bankrupt the business. Don’t let it bankrupt the brand.”
Some mistakes you can come back from. Others, you can’t.
Bankrupting the business = catastrophic operations failures (e.g. hiring wrong, overspending, lack of cash flow).
Bankrupting the brand = damaging customer trust (e.g. offensive ads, poor creative, confusing messaging).
📌 Mental Model: Brand and business health are different. Protect both.
3. Flywheel Thinking > Funnel Thinking
“You gather input. You create output. You get data. You join community. And you go around again—smarter.”
Marketing isn’t linear. It’s cyclical. Chandler explains a four-step Marketing Flywheel that leads to exponential improvement:
Input – Gather examples. Study competitors. Do research.
Output – Launch something, even if imperfect.
Data – Look at results. What happened?
Community – Share what you’re seeing. Get feedback.
Then? Loop again.
📌 Mental Model: Compounding progress comes from cycles, not campaigns.
4. The Mere Exposure Effect: Familiarity Builds Trust
“The more people see something, the more they trust it.”
The famous Pepsi Challenge proved one thing: even if Pepsi won in blind taste tests, Coke still won in brand preference. Why? Because Coke showed up more. On TV, in movies, in ads, in moments that mattered.
That’s the Mere Exposure Effect: the more someone sees your brand, the more they trust it—even if they don’t remember every detail.
Consistent exposure builds subconscious familiarity.
Familiarity breeds comfort. Comfort builds trust.
📌 Mental Model: You don’t need to go viral. You need to be visible.
5. Wake People Up From Autopilot
“Your job is to wake people up from their autopilot life. And the fastest way to do that is with emotion.”
People make 35,000+ decisions a day—most without thinking. Your marketing has to interrupt that autopilot.
Humor, surprise, shock, or warmth can jolt people out of their scroll.
If it doesn’t cause a reaction, it gets ignored.
📌 Mental Model: Attention is earned by interruption. Use emotion as the trigger.
6. The 95/5 Rule: Market to People Who Aren’t Ready Yet
“If they’re ready to buy, you’re already too late.”
At any moment, only about 5% of your market is actively looking to buy. The other 95%? They’re watching, listening, and learning—until the moment is right.
Most brands make the mistake of only targeting the 5%. But the great brands? They build relationships with the 95%.
They educate.
They entertain.
They show up consistently.
📌 Mental Model: Top-of-funnel isn’t wasted budget. It’s your future revenue.
7. Paid Media Is the First Lever to Pull
“Paid media is the fastest return on cash. It’s the easiest thing to sell because entrepreneurs understand: If I give you $1, you might give me $6 back.”
Especially in early-stage e-commerce, paid media offers fast data, fast feedback, and fast results. Chandler emphasizes:
Start with the platform you understand.
Use paid media to amplify creative that already works.
📌 Mental Model: Paid media = amplifier. It won’t fix broken offers, but it will expose them faster.
8. Marketing Is Half Magic, Half Science
“We’re magical scientists. Sometimes we test hypotheses. Sometimes we make magic.”
Great marketers live in the tension between data and gut. Chandler notes:
Data tells you what worked.
Magic tells you what might work.
📌 Mental Model: The best ideas come from the collision of insight and instinct.
9. Be One Trend Behind
“You don’t want to be too early. Being one trend behind means you’re learning from other people’s mistakes.”
Chandler argues the best businesses don’t jump on every new thing—they master what works. While the world chased Clubhouse, TikTok proved to be the better long-term bet.
📌 Mental Model: Early adopters are loud. Wait to see if it sticks.
10. Creative Is the Lever Most Brands Ignore
“Most brands underinvest in creative. And that’s the one thing that actually creates emotion.”
You can’t outsource taste. You need:
Scroll-stopping visuals
Hooks that hit emotion in the first 3 seconds
Ideas worth remembering
📌 Mental Model: If you wouldn’t watch your own ad, why would anyone else?
11. Clear Offers Win
“Don’t be Cheesecake Factory. Be Chick-fil-A. One offer. One message. Clear value.”
Clarity is the foundation of conversion. Chandler’s advice:
You should be known for solving one clear problem.
When people ask what you do, the answer should be obvious.
📌 Mental Model: Confusion is expensive. Simplicity scales.
12. Survive and Advance
“You just have to stay in the game long enough. That’s the goal.”
Most people quit before their breakthrough. Chandler’s metaphor: pounding the rock. You don’t know which strike cracks it open.
📌 Mental Model: Play long games. You’ll win by default if you stay in it.
Marketing isn't a channel—It’s a set of principles.
These mental models aren’t just clever sayings—they’re filters. Use them to make decisions, allocate your budget, and build a brand that lasts.
Need help fixing your marketing plan? Schedule a discovery call with us today to find out how we can help. Let's turn your brand into a high performance machine!