Attention Wars: The Battle for Human Focus Tobias Dahlberg October 23, 2025 – 3 min read Share this post Marketing The Most Expensive Blind Spot in Business: Misunderstanding Your ICP Most companies believe they know their customers. But if you push a little deeper, the illusion starts to crack. Ask a leadership team to describe their ideal customer and you’ll usually hear something like: “mid-sized companies,” “urban professionals,” or “health-conscious consumers.” That’s not insight. That’s By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read Marketing If You Don't Understand Your Customers Better Than Your Competition, You Don't Deserve To Win. Let’s say the quiet part out loud. Most companies have a shockingly weak understanding of their ideal customers. Not vague. Not “room for improvement.” Weak. And I don’t mean they lack data. They often have plenty of data. What they lack is understanding. I see this constantly—across By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read Marketing You're Not Competing Against Drinks, You're Competing With Routines. In Brief Functional beverage brands think they’re fighting for shelf space. That's not the root issue. They’re fighting for a slot in someone’s day. And most are losing — not because the product is bad, but because it doesn’t stick. What Is Happening (Signals) * Consumers By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read Strategy Differentiation Is the Wrong Target In Brief: Thirty years of brand strategy has been optimising for the wrong thing. The goal was never to be different. It was to be chosen. To be chosen, a brand does not need to be the most different. It needs to be the most relevant. Those are not the By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read Strategy Positioning Strength: The Measure Of Choice. In Brief: Most companies have a positioning strategy. Very few have a market position. The gap between the two is where growth quietly disappears. Somewhere in your organisation there is a document that describes your positioning. It was probably developed carefully and expensively. Lots of workshops, debate, tasting of words, By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read Strategy Before You Scale It, Make Sure You've Earned It. In Brief: Pouring marketing and sales resource into a weak proposition doesn't accelerate growth. It accelerates the leak. The most expensive mistake in commercial strategy is scaling choice before you've earned it. When growth stalls, the instinct is almost universal. Do more. Reach further. Spend harder. By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read Strategy Why Your Value Proposition Is Losing You Customers You Should Be Winning In Brief: Most value propositions are too generic. They are written to explain what the company, brand, product, or service delivers. They should be written to win customer choice. The difference between those two things is costing more than most leadership teams realise. Value propositions exist at many levels of By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read Brand The Brand Strategy You Can't Actually Strategize In Brief: The cultural moment is rewarding brands that look like they've stopped trying. Which creates a problem. Because the moment you try to stop trying, everyone can tell. There is a memo going around marketing departments right now. It has different subject lines depending on the company, By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read Strategy Beyond Position & Proposition: Why Your Value Proposition Needs More Context In Brief: Growth happens at a level of specificity that most strategies never reach — in the precise moments where a specific person, with a specific intention, in a specific context decides. To grow, you must understand which Choice Spaces to battle for, and how to win in them. Most companies By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
Marketing The Most Expensive Blind Spot in Business: Misunderstanding Your ICP Most companies believe they know their customers. But if you push a little deeper, the illusion starts to crack. Ask a leadership team to describe their ideal customer and you’ll usually hear something like: “mid-sized companies,” “urban professionals,” or “health-conscious consumers.” That’s not insight. That’s By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
Marketing If You Don't Understand Your Customers Better Than Your Competition, You Don't Deserve To Win. Let’s say the quiet part out loud. Most companies have a shockingly weak understanding of their ideal customers. Not vague. Not “room for improvement.” Weak. And I don’t mean they lack data. They often have plenty of data. What they lack is understanding. I see this constantly—across By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read
Marketing You're Not Competing Against Drinks, You're Competing With Routines. In Brief Functional beverage brands think they’re fighting for shelf space. That's not the root issue. They’re fighting for a slot in someone’s day. And most are losing — not because the product is bad, but because it doesn’t stick. What Is Happening (Signals) * Consumers By Tobias Dahlberg • 2 min read
Strategy Differentiation Is the Wrong Target In Brief: Thirty years of brand strategy has been optimising for the wrong thing. The goal was never to be different. It was to be chosen. To be chosen, a brand does not need to be the most different. It needs to be the most relevant. Those are not the By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
Strategy Positioning Strength: The Measure Of Choice. In Brief: Most companies have a positioning strategy. Very few have a market position. The gap between the two is where growth quietly disappears. Somewhere in your organisation there is a document that describes your positioning. It was probably developed carefully and expensively. Lots of workshops, debate, tasting of words, By Tobias Dahlberg • 3 min read
Strategy Before You Scale It, Make Sure You've Earned It. In Brief: Pouring marketing and sales resource into a weak proposition doesn't accelerate growth. It accelerates the leak. The most expensive mistake in commercial strategy is scaling choice before you've earned it. When growth stalls, the instinct is almost universal. Do more. Reach further. Spend harder. By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
Strategy Why Your Value Proposition Is Losing You Customers You Should Be Winning In Brief: Most value propositions are too generic. They are written to explain what the company, brand, product, or service delivers. They should be written to win customer choice. The difference between those two things is costing more than most leadership teams realise. Value propositions exist at many levels of By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
Brand The Brand Strategy You Can't Actually Strategize In Brief: The cultural moment is rewarding brands that look like they've stopped trying. Which creates a problem. Because the moment you try to stop trying, everyone can tell. There is a memo going around marketing departments right now. It has different subject lines depending on the company, By Tobias Dahlberg • 4 min read
Strategy Beyond Position & Proposition: Why Your Value Proposition Needs More Context In Brief: Growth happens at a level of specificity that most strategies never reach — in the precise moments where a specific person, with a specific intention, in a specific context decides. To grow, you must understand which Choice Spaces to battle for, and how to win in them. Most companies By Tobias Dahlberg • 5 min read
