In first heard Professor Byron Sharp present the thinking in his breakthrough book in a conference room in Beijing. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who left the room feeling a 100 times brighter than when I went in. David Tiltman, 2020.
Few have done more diligent, evidence-based and interesting work in this field recently than the marketing academic Byron Sharp.
The Telegraph (UK). August 2011.
Science has revolutionized every discipline it has touched, now it is marketing's turn!! All marketers need to move beyond the psycho-babble and read this book... or be left hopelessly behind.
Joseph Tripodi
Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer
The Coca-Cola Company
When I first met Byron Sharp he told me, in very direct fashion, that the concept of marketing I had been applying for 20 years was the business parallel to medieval blood letting. That my brands survived despite my best ministrations, not because of them! Harsh, but in hindsight not completely unfounded.
His book takes us on a scientific journey that reveals and explains, with great rigour, the Laws of Growth. No hocus-pocus or sleight of hand. In it we finally discover that the marketing world is not flat, and Byron has the empirical evidence to prove it!
Bruce McColl, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Mars Incorporated.
The best book I have ever read
Richard Vincent, Jack Morton Worldwide.
How Brands Grow is due to become one of the important marketing books that everybody should read.
Erik Du Plessis, ‘The Branded Mind’ 2011, Kogan Page Ltd.
Qantas In-flight magazine
The evidence in this book should make any marketer think hard about how they manage their brands.
Kevin Brennan
General Manager Snacks
and Marketing Director
Kellogg UK
Much of our ‘marketing expertise’ today is based on a story about yesterday’s outcome, which often happened despite, not because of, what the marketer did. Dr. Sharp’s book brings science to marketing with practical findings that have been replicated, explained, and generalized into “laws” we can rely on. Until every marketer applies these learnings, there will be a competitive advantage for those who do.
Mitch Barns, President & CEO, The Nielsen Company.
Hans Christian Andersen tells a brilliant tale about two rogues who convince the Emperor they can weave the most beautiful cloth with the magical property that it can only be seen by those worthy of their position in life. The Emperor is fooled into wearing nothing but his baby suit in full view of the public who heartily praise the clothes because, like the Emperor, no one dares admit they see nothing. The bubble is burst when an innocent child loudly exclaims that the Emperor is naked.
This book puts marketing’s rogue weavers, of which there are many, in their proper place. There are laws in marketing – all we have to do is to look for them.
Thomas Bayne
CEO and President
MountainView Learning
This book should be required reading on any marketing course. It demonstrates that, contrary to what many believe, there is a corpus of well-established scientific knowledge about how markets work. These findings run counter to most marketing textbooks. Many commonly accepted nostrums such as concentration on loyalty, customer retention, brand differentiation and tight targeting, are shown to be self-defeating, because they go against the flow of real customer behaviour and the dynamics of market share growth. The conclusions may startle many, but the evidence is clear and convincing. Practising marketers dare not ignore the evidence.
Colin McDonald
The ‘father’ of Single-Source analysis and author of Tracking Advertising & Monitoring Brands
There is competitive advantage here for those who understand and follow this book's lessons.
Jack Wakshlag
Chief Research Officer
Turner Broadcasting Systems, Inc.
Melding logic and science with compelling insight, this book lays out important principles that every manager should know and apply. A truly thought-provoking book.
Timothy Keiningham
Global Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President
IPSOS Loyalty;
Co-author of The Loyalty Cure.
Don’t walk – run to get this book.
Herb Sorenson
Scientific Advisor
TNS Global Retail & Shopper Practice
This is a remarkable book.....
Franz Dill
The Eponymouspickle.blogspot.com
A highly provocative new book.. littered with wake-up calls...
More than anything else, I’m just plain envious. It’s a book I wish I had the intelligence to write....
Reading Sharp's critique of the cult of differentiation made me smile. And I laughed out loud at his characterisation of supposedly committed consumers as uncaring cognitive misers.
Marketing Week (UK)
How brands grow (Oxford University Press), swings a hammer at some of the key beliefs and rules running our marketing operations for half a century.....
Melbourne Herald Sun
24 July 2010.
If you haven’t already got this book, I recommend you do.
Jeremy Hope
OUTSOURCEmyMARKETING.com.au
You’ve got to read this book - it makes sense for once
Simon van Wyk
The HotHouse Blog
If you want to buy one book this year to help you (or the marketer in your life) be a better a marketer, don’t buy all the data-devoid stuff that makes us feel cutting edge, or massages our egos. I suggest you read this one. It is full of proper data and analysis. And full of the stuff that as Sharp says, marketers should know, but many clearly don’t.
Martin Weigel
Canalside View
I buy business books all the time and rarely get beyond the third chapter – often you’ve got the basic idea by then and the rest of the book is just unnecessary repetition and amplification, or it’s just written in too dull a way to hold attention. Or both. But this one is different and I highly recommend it.
I can’t do justice to this book in a blog post: buy it, absorb it and apply it and you will be better for it.
Helen Weavers
Real World Planning
If you buy one marketing book this year - buy this
Paul Der Van
Random Thoughts on Marketing
...should have appeal to anyone with a shred of skepticism about touchy-feely conceptions of marketing.
Matthew Creamer
Advertising Age
It’s a highly challenging, terribly real, and refreshingly human read.
Doug Garnett - CEO Atomic Direct.
The book “How Brands Grow” by Professor Byron Sharp and the researchers of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute makes an important contribution to the science and practice of marketing.
Millward Brown, 2011.
From Amazon reviewers:
'practical insights derived from decades of evidence'
'rips down the flimsy edifices we've leaned on for years'
'You can't read 'How Brands Grow' and do nothing'
'I would prefer that my competitors not read this book'
'I am just hoping none of our competitors read it'
'I'd prefer if all of our competitors did not even peek at the first page!’
'a real 'eye-opener' and a 'must-read''
'the death-knell for the marketing 'wizards''
'There are real competitive advantages from leveraging these insights'
'Your old marketing textbooks will probably be relegated to expensive paperweights'
'It will change what you see and what you do'
'Byron Sharp is not shy about taking on the shibboleths of the marketing and advertising worlds'
'Managing a brand without this book will leave success to expensive guesswork'
'Radical. Uncomfortable. Essential'
'It will change the way you think!'
'Science-based evidence on how marketing really works'
'a Bible'
'refreshing'
'A great read'
