Growth comes from expanding the customer base, not loyalty programs.	•	“Growth is about reaching more buyers.”

Importance of Marketing Penetration

Place products everywhere customers might want to buy.	•	“Availability isn’t just placement—it’s visibility.”

Physical Availability Matters

Most buyers are occasional; loyalty isn’t a sustainable growth model.	•	“A larger buyer pool, not repeat purchases, fuels growth.”

Loyalty is Overrated

Growth comes from reaching light and non-users, not just loyalists.	•	“Every customer contributes to growth.”

All Buyers Matters

Emotional loyalty is weak; focus on widespread visibility.	•	“Emotion doesn’t trump availability and reach.”

Emotional Appeals are Overemphasized

Heavy users don’t guarantee long-term growth; broaden the base.	•	“Relying on heavy users stalls brand expansion.”

Heavy Buyers Don’t Drive Growth

Keep pricing accessible to attract a larger audience.	•	“Affordable pricing extends brand reach.”

Pricing for Accessibility

Track market penetration and brand visibility for real growth.	•	“Measuring growth through penetration brings results.”

Track Growth over Loyalty

How Brands Grow challenges traditional views, advocating for broadening reach, consistent visibility, and focusing on mental and physical availability over loyalty programs.

Make your brand easy to recall; mental availability equals market share.	•	“Being the brand people think of increases success.”

Power of Mental Availability

Stand out, but don’t rely solely on being “different.”	•	“It’s not about being unique, but memorable.”

Distinctiveness over Differentiation

Consistent brand cues, like logos and colors, help customers recognize you.	•	“Consistency in visuals builds familiarity.”

Consistency Builds Trust

Retention-focused tactics waste resources on a small segment.	•	“Retention takes away focus from attracting new buyers.”

Retention Strategies can Backfire

Ads build memory links, increasing future sales.	•	“Memory links mean customers remember you first.”

Investment in Advertising

Reach new customers rather than repeat ads to existing ones.	•	“Brand growth is about new faces, not repetition.”

Reach beats Frequency

Promotions drive temporary boosts, not lasting loyalty.	•	“Promotions are for visibility, not attachment.”

Sales Don’t Always Equal Loyalty

How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp reveals the science behind brand growth, debunking myths and giving data-backed strategies that drive long-term brand success.

This book provides evidence-based answers to the key questions asked by marketers every day. Tackling issues such as how brands grow, how advertising really works, what price promotions really do and how loyalty programs really affect loyalty, How Brands Grow presents decades of research in a style that is written for marketing professionals to grow their brands. It is the first book to present these laws in context and to explore their meaning and application. The most distinctive element to this book is that the laws presented are tried and tested; they have been found to hold over varied conditions, time and countries. This is contra to most marketing texts and indeed, much information provides evidence that much modern marketing theory is far from soundly based.

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