News & Blogs

There you are. A nice cup of coffee, half an hour's rest, time for some online inspiration. You know better than anyone that your organization also has to fight the battle for the customer. Enthusiastically, you click through a number of articles and blogs by renowned authors, who present fantastic examples of the most customer-driven companies in the world. In your head, you are already working on your comprehensive master plan....

Is that what Byron Sharp is saying? No. But it's a good title for a blog, I thought. And completely out of the blue, of course, it's not. Because at the very least, you could say that Byron Sharp ignores the importance of purpose for a brand in his books, and thus undervalues it. That he doesn't write about it in books that deal with brand growth, what can you infer from that? And how might, or perhaps should, you look at it from How Brands Grow?

A product is shaped by many features. For example, hair dryers come in different shapes and colors, with various attachments, possible heat settings and motor types. Each of these features affects a customer's decision whether to buy the product or not.

'Target the market' is a much quoted quote by Byron Sharp. And as it is with quotes: they sometimes take on a life of their own. Time passes after you read or hear such a quote in context. And combined with all kinds of other people's experiences and opinions, at some point it can stick that segmentation is nonsense. Only: that's too short-sighted and it's not quite right.

In conversations and discussions about How Brands Grow, you sometimes hear persistent misunderstandings come along. To name three: 1. Sharp states that loyalty does not exist 2. Sharp says segmentation is nonsense 3. Sharp ignores the purpose of a brand.

Perhaps over-familiar, but still very telling: the Tropicana case. About a mistake that cost 23 million. Especially relevant now that the latest How Brands Grow book is out: building Distinctive Brand Assets.