references/canon/binet-field.md

# Binet Field

## Principle

Separate immediate activation effects from longer-horizon brand effects and judge budget choices against business maturity, category, buying cycle, and time horizon rather than one universal split.

## Use when

- The team is comparing performance activity with brand activity.
- Short-term attributed results are dominating all budget decisions.
- A strategy needs explicit near-term and longer-term outcomes.

## Do not over-apply

- Do not copy a fixed brand/activation percentage across categories.
- Do not treat long-term effects as an excuse for unmeasurable spending.

## Decision questions

- Which effects should appear now and which later?
- What is the buying cycle?
- Which channels create demand versus capture it?
- How will longer-horizon value be evaluated without pretending attribution is perfect?

## Counterweight

Use unit economics and controlled experiments for decisions that can be measured directly, while preserving longer-horizon learning for brand effects.

## Sources

- `source:binet-field-long-short`