Looking at recent advertising and startup success rates is like staring into the abyss. Ninety per cent of all startups and 80 per cent of all advertisements fail, and according to the European Commission, consumer confidence in 2025 remains low. It’s a good sign that despite this gloomy evidence of how much can go wrong, people continue to become entrepreneurs due to a strong, unconditional belief in their own offering. My goal is to support those brave visionaries by sharing the biggest secrets of successful brands and by formalizing these secrets into five actionable principles that empower entrepreneurs and marketers to beat the odds and build a truly sustainable brand in today’s fast-paced economy. An essential underlying strategy I strongly recommend for each step along the way is this: test, measure, and learn. Define your hypotheses, validate them with real-life data, and learn from the results by continuously adapting your strategies.
