What Marketers Don’t Know
Byron Sharp
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 programmes 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.
Review
How Brands Grow is a seismic shift in marketing thinking, one that’s reshaped how I advise clients on brand strategy. With empirical rigor, Sharp dismantles marketing myths (like the obsession with loyalty programmes) and replaces them with evidence-based laws of growth. His central premise, that brands grow by reaching all category buyers, not just niche segments, has transformed how we approach campaigns for clients in crowded markets.
Sharp’s “double jeopardy” law (smaller brands have fewer buyers who are slightly less loyal) was a wake-up call. We stopped over-indexing on retention tactics for a mid-size whiskey brand and refocused on mental and physical availability, leading to 18% YOY growth. The book’s emphasis on distinctive assets (not differentiation) also revolutionised our rebranding work, we now audit sonic logos and colour palettes with the same rigour as value propositions.
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