Reframing the Marketing Funnel

A Simpler, Smarter Approach to Growth by Dr. Grace Kite

A Simpler Recipe for Marketing Success

Italy's most popular pizza is not overloaded with toppings or extravagant design. It’s the Margherita, with tomato sauce, mozzarella (preferably ‘bufala’), and fresh basil added after cooking. As Dr Grace Kite observes, even among pizza experts, the simplest version is often the best. This preference for simplicity offers a useful parallel in marketing.

Over recent years, the marketing funnel has grown increasingly complicated. Analysts from Google to BCG have mapped ever more intricate customer journeys, introducing nuanced stages and psychological profiles that are difficult to measure and influence. The result has often been confusion rather than clarity, particularly for teams under pressure to justify spend and deliver results.

Against this background, Kite’s argument for a radically simplified funnel is refreshing and empirically grounded. Drawing on real-world evidence and decades of effectiveness research, she proposes a model that distinguishes only two customers: those ready to buy now and those who will be prepared. This pared-back approach, supported by insights from Les Binet, Peter Field, and the “Multiplier Effect” research by System1 and WARC, offers theoretical coherence and practical advantage.