How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don't Know

Brand marketers often speak of "our customers" as if there is a group of people out there who have some sort of at least semi-permanent relationship with their brand. Attempts to identify these people (segmentation) and target them with marketing are misguided in the sense that there is an incredible amount of fluidity reflected in the composition of your share of the market. Byron Sharp speaks to issues like this with practical insights derived from decades of evidence compiled and analyzed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science (and others.) As a scientist myself, I recognize this book as solid science in a world of "received wisdom." His willingness to make statements like, "It is surprising that these sorts of artificial [laboratory] studies are still being done," is refreshing. One of hundreds of gems: "Finally, the decision to drop, phase out or sell brands should be based on viability, cost and operating issues and not on how similar the brand is to another of the company's brands. This is especially true if the brands are well established with substantial market-based assets." I heartily agree with Joseph Tripodi, CMO of Coke, when he says, "read this book . . . or be left hopelessly behind."

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Este libro destruye lo que creías saber sobre marketing Lo leí esperando otro libro de estrategia de marca con los mismos consejos de siempre. No es eso. Byron Sharp llega con datos reales y desmonta mitos que toda la industria repite como verdades: la lealtad del cliente, la segmentación extrema, el propósito de marca. Argumentos que suenan incómodos precisamente porque son difíciles de refutar. Lo que más golpea es la simplicidad de la conclusión central: las marcas crecen ganando más compradores ocasionales, no profundizando en los que ya tienes. Parece obvio cuando lo lees. No lo era antes de leerlo. No es un libro fácil en el sentido de que te da recetas. Te obliga a repensar. Eso lo hace valioso y también algo frustrante si buscas un manual paso a paso. Lectura obligatoria si trabajas en marketing, ventas o construyes una marca. Y más obligatoria todavía si llevas años en el sector y crees que ya sabes cómo funciona esto.

This book shows a new paradigm and perspective on conventional principles of marketing which have been core marketing theory so far based on data analyses and insights. I would like to adapt this innovative rationals to edit my publications in the future.

I was skeptical of this book, and put off reading for sometime. My reason was that although acquisition and penetration seems to be at the core of the message, as big brands having a slight edge on retention than smaller ones (I saw some youtube's by professor Sharp), the book is not available in Kindle. Anybody writing a book and really wanting to acquire bunch of new audience probably shouldn't say no to a channel that controls 70-80% of the e-reader market. I tweeted to prof Sharp and he had his reasons, mostly centered around the formatting of the book being harder on Kindle, which might be the case ( Although I believe Amazon is way too advanced for not formatting charts and tables correctly, and I have self published my daughters poems, it was very easy). Moving on beyond why I didn't read the book early on. I think this book is absolutely fantastic read. It is written in a matter of fact way, with data points for every argument it makes. It was recommended by Dr. Fader (Wharton School) , after I asked him a certain question, and I had to change my mind and actually read it. He was spot on. Lot of the findings in the book are very close to what I have seen in practical data. If you are in midst of digital advertising revolution and working on a relatively smaller brand this book will clear your head on some misconceptions or lets say popular notions of brand building and may give you new ideas on how to go about it. I rather not summarize the book in my review, but I think the book gives the reader different ideas on the few questions such as retention vs acquisition, understanding the relation ship of cross selling to customer base, how much to sweat on retention and defection, focusing and trying to acquire a certain customer segment relative to brand size. In short, I would say whether you agree with the book or not, it is a must read.

I've worked with Consumer Packaged Goods marketers for 25 years, and this book brings together all the facts, hearsay, and downright myths...even explaining why we are often fooled by the common ones. The sub-title "what marketers don't know" could not be more appropriate. If brand marketers really embrace and trust this book, I suspect we'll see a different approach to each of the 4 Ps of Marketing for their brand in year one...and only small changes thereafter. How Brands Grow is easy to understand and provides the ammunition to make informed choices and stick with them. I've loved Byron Sharp's Ehrenberg-Bass reports for years...having them all in one place is incredibly valuable.

The first half of the book is better than the second, I.e., it seems that the author lost deep insights and empirical research roughly halfway in the book and then rushed with unbaked hypothesis that were more generalities than insights. Good read for most parts.

I've been a marketing and branding practitioner for 30+ years and I've read literally hundreds of the most 'notable' marketing texts from the leading academics in the business. This book was recommended by a highly respected researcher and if he hadn't mentioned it I probably would never have read the book. Let me just say that we rarely get many marketers who are brave enough to take a contrarian's point of view on delicate marketing subjects. Byron Sharp takes on some of the real heavy hitters from HBS and other leading business schools and he does it with outstanding proprietary research and rich third party data. The book now has me wondering what other leading thought leaders I've been impressed by whose work is also suspect. Other reviewers on these pages can give you specific examples of Sharp's notable findings. I can only give you my recommendation...buy and read this book!

I appreciated the math and science behind the myth-busting of marketing teachings, but I found myself wanting more examples of brands who actually grew over time that broke away from the draw of the mean.

The book - How Brands Grow, raises a lot of questions. It shakes up our traditional understanding of marketing especially Kotler's theories. Book bust a lot of myths. The author gives enough empirical data to support his claims. I connected with the few concepts like why loyalty program does not work, why price promotion is for retailers and what is the ultimate purpose of advertisement. I could not digest the notion that STP does not work, but got convinced the way he explained. Finally, he sums up by saying that it's only the mental and physical availability that make the brand easier to buy for more people, in more situations and the brand grows. No matter you subscribe to his thoughts or not, reading the book will force you to think about marketing in a slightly different way. It will create a new memory structure for marketing. A must-read for any marketers.

Good book for people in marketing or brand managers

Probably among the top 10 best marketing books ever red, along with Consumer connection, Cultural branding, etc. Altough some short-cuts are taken, and some chapters repeat themselves, it is an amazing though-provoking book for anyone who has gone through the dogma books of Kotler & like.

A must read book for any business leader

Quite interesting to learn about the appeal of “mass marketing”.