Brand · 20 April 2026
20 Years in Marketing Has Taught Me Five Things
Five lessons from twenty years in marketing — none of them are new, all of them are still underbuilt.
Zac Froud
Founder, ADVCY · Billboard 2025 Global Power Player
Key Takeaways
- Belief has to be designed — the strongest brands decide what they stand for before they decide what they sell
- Advocacy is not a funnel — it is a progression from customer to fan to advocate, and it starts where the funnel ends
- Value compounds — the customer who brings you another customer is worth more than the one who buys once and disappears
- Belonging is not a nice-to-have — it is what makes people stay, return, and bring others with them
- We are now in a Post-Utility era — utility gets you considered; belonging, identity, and participation drive growth now
None of them are new. All of them are still underbuilt.
One. Belief has to be designed.
The strongest brands do not leave belief to chance. They decide what they stand for before they decide what they sell. They choose a worldview, build a language around it, and attract people who already see the world in a similar way.
Belief is not a by-product of a good product. It is a prerequisite for a brand that lasts.
Patagonia is the clearest example. Everything the company does, from telling people not to buy another jacket to building repair and resale into the model, reinforces a single worldview. The brand is not just selling outerwear. It is organising people around a set of values.
That belief was designed in from the start. It shapes what they make, how they behave, who they hire, and who chooses to buy from them.
And when belief is designed well, it gives people something to advocate for.
Two. Advocacy is not a funnel.
It is a progression from customer to fan to advocate.
Funnels end at purchase. Advocacy starts there.
Most marketing teams are still pouring budget into the top of the funnel and wondering why growth feels expensive. The real compounding returns sit on the other side of the transaction, in the space where a customer becomes a fan, and a fan becomes someone who brings other people with them.
LEGO Ideas is a masterclass in this. A customer buys a set. A fan builds something original. An advocate submits that idea, rallies support around it, and helps turn it into something the wider community wants to see in the world.
LEGO did not stop at the transaction. They built a ladder. The top rung is participation, ownership, and advocacy.
And once advocacy is designed well, value stops being linear.
Three. Value compounds.
The customer who brings you another customer is worth more than the one who buys once and disappears.
Fred Reichheld has spent decades making that case. McKinsey has quantified versions of the same truth across categories. The best customers do not just buy. They stay longer, spend more, reduce acquisition cost, and bring demand with them.
The economics are not subtle. They are just inconvenient, because they do not fit neatly into a quarterly acquisition dashboard.
Figma built a company on this principle. Designers invited other designers. Teams brought in other teams. The product was not just easy to use. It was easy to spread. Collaborative use became distribution.
That is what compounding value looks like in practice: growth that moves through customers, not just at them.
But compounding only lasts when people feel part of something bigger than the transaction.
Four. Belonging is not a nice-to-have.
It is what makes people stay, return, and bring others with them.
Muniz and O'Guinn identified the markers of real brand community more than twenty years ago: shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a felt sense of responsibility to one another. Most branded communities still meet none of them. The ones that do become very hard to displace.
Harley-Davidson Motor Company understood this early. It did not build a loyalty scheme. It built chapters, rides, rallies, patches, and a social identity people wanted to carry into their lives. That is why the brand endures beyond the mechanics of the motorcycle.
Belonging turns advocacy from an act into a culture.
And in markets where functional advantage gets compressed, that culture becomes the moat.
Five. We are now in a Post-Utility era.
Utility gets you considered. Belonging, identity, and participation are what drive growth now.
Useful products still matter. Of course they do. But utility alone is no longer enough. Features get copied. Outcomes get commoditised. Functional advantage gets compressed.
When that happens, competition moves up the stack. I love brands that give people something more than a product outcome. They give people a role to play, a story to join, and an identity they want to be associated with.
Liquid Death sells water. The water is not the point. What people buy into is the signal. The worldview. The chance to participate in something culturally distinct in a category full of sameness.
The product is the price of entry. The meaning around it is where growth lives.
None of this is new.
Seth Godin has been writing about tribes, story, and belonging for years. Fred Reichheld has been measuring loyalty and recommendation for decades. Muniz and O'Guinn gave brand community academic shape in 2001. McKinsey & Company, Gartner, and Forrester have all pointed to the same shift in different ways.
The research is not the missing piece. The missing piece is a system to operationalise it.
That is what we are building at Advcy.ai. A community design company turning audiences into relationships.
Build something people talk about. Not because you asked them to. Because they cannot help it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the five things 20 years in marketing teaches?
The five lessons are: belief has to be designed, advocacy is not a funnel, value compounds, belonging is not a nice-to-have, and we are now in a Post-Utility era. None of them are new — thinkers like Seth Godin, Fred Reichheld, and Muniz and O'Guinn laid the groundwork years ago. What is still missing in most companies is a system to operationalise them.
Why is advocacy not a funnel?
Funnels end at purchase, but advocacy starts there. It is a progression from customer to fan to advocate, and the real compounding returns sit on the other side of the transaction — where a customer becomes a fan, and a fan becomes someone who brings other people with them. LEGO Ideas is a masterclass in this: a customer buys a set, a fan builds something original, and an advocate rallies community support around it.
What is the Post-Utility era in marketing?
The Post-Utility era is the shift where utility alone no longer drives growth — it only gets you considered. Features get copied, outcomes get commoditised, and functional advantage gets compressed, so competition moves up the stack to belonging, identity, and participation. Liquid Death is the clearest example: the water is not the point, the signal and worldview people buy into is where growth lives.
Why does belonging matter for brand growth?
Belonging is what makes people stay, return, and bring others with them. Muniz and O'Guinn identified the markers of real brand community more than twenty years ago — shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a felt sense of responsibility to one another — yet most branded communities still meet none of them. Harley-Davidson built chapters, rides, rallies, and a social identity rather than a loyalty scheme, and in markets where functional advantage gets compressed, that culture becomes the moat.
Written by
Zac Froud, Founder of ADVCY
Billboard 2025 Global Power Player. 17 years across Warner Music, Universal, Disney, and Coinbase. Building technology that turns audiences into communities.