About a decade ago, a guy called Byron Sharp turned the marketing world on its head.
He wrote a book that really exposed a few charlatans.
And we should all be eternally grateful.
Because Sharp figured out how brands really grow.
He took a scientific, data-driven approach and did a deep-dive into the science of growing a business.
He proved that success depends on two key factors (which I’ll get to in a minute).
But what makes Sharp’s research so special isn’t just what he was able to prove, it’s also what he was able to disprove.
For decades, marketing ‘gurus’ and self-declared experts in agencies across the world had been telling businesses how to grow.
They had countless theories, frameworks and formulas.
Marketing mega-brains invented their own trademarked ‘recipe for success’.
Everyone claimed to have the secret sauce and told us the other guy’s recipe was poison.
There were buzzwords, jargon-heavy pitches and so, so many PowerPoint diagrams.
Oh, the fucking diagrams.
If you’ve ever sat in an agency boardroom listening to them pitch this stuff, you know exactly what I’m talking about.
If you haven’t, count yourself lucky.
Now, I will say, not all of that stuff is wrong.
There’s a lot of great work being done by some very intelligent people in those boardrooms.
But in many cases, a lot of it was also guesswork.
Loads of it was based on long-held assumptions and marketing ‘rules’.
And then Byron Sharp’s ‘How Brands Grow’ landed on those boardroom tables.
It blew many of those old marketing assumptions and ‘rules’ out of the water.
His in-depth research dispelled a lot of myths about brand loyalty, mass marketing, customer retention
and much more.
Suddenly, marketers had to pause and think:
‘Have we been talking shit all this time?’
For a lot of them, the answer was yes.
And the better ones started diving into Sharp’s work and reshaping their thinking.
The good news for the rest of us was that we finally had clear research-backed proof about how brand growth really works.
We didn’t have to listen to guesses anymore.
No more bespoke frameworks from boardroom mega-brains.
Sharp had provided concrete proof of how brands actually grow.
There’s a lot to be learned from the book for businesses of all sizes.
But I’ll save you from reading it and give you the big takeaway.
Here’s what it boils down to.
This is what brands need to do to grow.
Two things.
1. Be remembered.
1. Be available.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Memorability and availability.
That’s what’s at the heart of growing a small business brand or a multinational mega-corp.
Now, I know this might seem obvious.
Of course you need to be remembered and available.
But achieving those things actually isn’t easy.
Getting to that point is obviously complex and requires an effective brand strategy.
So there’s a lot to unpack from those two little points.
And that’s something we can dive into another day.
For now, just keep this in mind.
To grow your small business, you need to be remembered and available.
Above all else.
And we know that because of Byron Sharp and his book, which saved us from another few decades of expensive marketing bullshit.
Thanks Byron.
