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Byron Sharp

Sharp · How Brands Grow

Byron Sharp (born 1968) is the face of marketing's empirical school. As professor at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute he condensed decades of buying-behaviour research into How Brands Grow, the book that popularised the laws of market growth: double jeopardy, duplication of purchase, and growth through penetration rather than loyalty. His programme corrects marketing folklore: measure what buyers do instead of what they say, and build mental and physical availability rather than trusting differentiation and audience refinement. Criticism of Sharp concerns scope: the laws are best evidenced in repeat-purchase markets, and translating them to B2B, services and new categories requires care.

Key work How Brands Grow (2010)

Sharp · Mental availability

Covered in

A1

A1-01 What Makes a Marketing Law a Lawstill locked

A1-02 Double Jeopardy — The First Lawstill locked

A1-03 Retention, Acquisition and the Leaky Bucketstill locked

A1-04 Mental Availability — The Mechanism Behind the Patternsstill locked

A1-05 Physical Availability — Presence, Prominence, Portfoliostill locked

A1-06 Distinctive Assets — The Grid and the Disciplinestill locked

A1-07 Category Entry Points — Mapping the Buying Situationsstill locked

A1-08 Duplication of Purchase and the Natural Monopoly Lawstill locked

A1-09 Price Promotions and Loyalty Programmes — What the Evidence Saysstill locked

A1-10 The Case Against Sharp — Limits, Critics and Boundary Conditionsstill locked

A1-11 The Ehrenberg-Bass Playbook, Appliedstill locked

A1-12 Penetration AND Loyalty — The Synthesisstill locked

Show all 196 mentions

A2

A2-02 The Long and the Short of It: The Evidencestill locked

A2-03 Fame, Emotion and Activationstill locked

A2-06 Creative Commitment and the Effectiveness Ladderstill locked

A2-08 Distinctive Assets in the Creative Workstill locked

A2-09 Wear-Out, Wear-In and the Power of Consistencystill locked

A2-10 The Creative Brief as Synthesis (Capstone)still locked

A3

A3-02 Reach versus Targeting: What the Evidence Saysstill locked

A3-04 Frequency and Recency: How Often Is Enough?still locked

A3-07 Attribution and Its Broken Promisesstill locked

A3-08 Platform Metrics versus Independent Measurementstill locked

A3-10 Setting the Budget: From Rule of Thumb to Defensible Numberstill locked

A3-11 Reading Econometrics as a Clientstill locked

A3-12 Capstone: The Media Plan on Trialstill locked

A4

A4-01 The Sharpest Lever — and What We Actually Know About Itstill locked

A4-03 Value-Based Pricing as a Method — Quantifying the Ceilingstill locked

A4-06 Promotions and Their Long-Term Damage: The Ehrenberg-Bass Evidencestill locked

A4-07 Premium and Luxury: Where Price Itself Creates Valuestill locked

A4-08 Price Wars: How They Start and How to Stay Outstill locked

A5

A5-01 B2B Is Not a Different Universe — Where It Is and Isn'tstill locked

A5-02 The Brand Laws in B2B — the Dawes Evidencestill locked

A5-03 The 95-5 Rule — a Framework, Not a Censusstill locked

A5-06 Category Entry Points and Mental Availability in B2Bstill locked

A5-07 Account-Based Marketing — an Honest Labelstill locked

A6

A6-01 Why International Marketing Knowledge Is Different — The Meta-Openingstill locked

A6-04 De Mooij and the Convergence Mythstill locked

A6-05 Do Sharp's Laws Cross Borders?still locked

A6-06 International Brand Architecturestill locked

A6-07 Cultural Execution, Strategic Consistencystill locked

A6-08 Market Entry and the International Audit — Capstonestill locked

A7

A7-01 Why A7 Is Not A10 — The Product Marketing Remitstill locked

A7-03 Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations — The Empirical Enginestill locked

A7-04 Launch as Availability Building — Distribution Firststill locked

A7-05 Category Entry Points for New Productsstill locked

A7-06 Pricing the New — Skimming, Penetration and the Value Anchorstill locked

A7-07 Product-Led Growth — An Honest Appraisalstill locked

A7-08 Portfolio and Line Decisions — Extend, Prune, Replacestill locked

A7-09 Launch Metrics and the Product–Marketing Partnership — One Scoreboardstill locked

A7-10 The Launch Audit — Capstonestill locked

A8

A8-01 The Store Is the Medium — Why Retail Is Marketing's Forgotten Halfstill locked

A8-02 Physical Availability Deepened — The Law Side of the Shelfstill locked

A8-03 How Shoppers Actually Shop — Sorensen's Data Against Retail Folklorestill locked

A8-04 Shelf, Assortment and Private Label — Fighting for Inches Against Your Own Distributorstill locked

A8-05 E-commerce and the Digital Shelf — Same Laws, Different Aislestill locked

A8-06 Retail Media — Big Money, Young Evidencestill locked

A8-07 Promotion Pressure — What Fifty Years of Purchase Data Say About the Dealstill locked

A8-08 Capstone — Omnichannel Is Not a Channel Strategy but One Shelfstill locked

A9

A9-01 This Lecture Ages While You Read Itstill locked

A9-03 Personalisation at Scale — and Its Evidence Problemstill locked

A9-04 AI in Media Buying — the Targeting Temptation Returnsstill locked

A9-06 Distinctiveness When Everyone Has the Same Toolsstill locked

A9-07 The AI-Ready Marketing Organisationstill locked

A9-09 Ethics & the EU AI Actstill locked

A10

A10-01 Why This Module Carries a Warning Label§ "This is true" versus "this is useful to think with"

A10-02 Blue Ocean Strategy: The Thinking Toolstill locked

A10-05 Business Model Canvas: Form or Thinking Model?still locked

A10-06 Transient Advantage: McGrath's Answer to Porterstill locked

A10-07 Crossing the Chasm: Diffusion Beyond the Early Marketstill locked

A10-09 Market Creation and the Brand: The Synthesis with Sharpstill locked

A10-10 The Innovation Audit: Which Tool Whenstill locked

F1

F1-01 What is Marketing?§ 5. The Art and Science of Marketing

F1-02 The Three Practitioners: Client, Agency, In-House§ 2. The External Agency

F1-04 The Decision Problem§ Sources

F1-05 The Marketing Process: From Analysis to Action§ Sources

F1-07 The Seven Misconceptions About Marketing§ Misconception 1: "Loyalty is More Profitable Than Acquisition"

F1-08 Integration: the marketer§ 1. The Six False Dichotomies of F1

F2

F2-01 How Consumers Actually Decide§ Part 3: The Decision-Making Spectrum

F2-02 System 1 and System 2still locked

F2-05 Mental Availability and Category Entry Pointsstill locked

F2-06 Physical Availability and the Buying Situationstill locked

F2-07 The Neuroscience of Brand Choicestill locked

F2-08 Price Perception and Behavioural Economicsstill locked

F2-09 The Logic of the Irrationalstill locked

F2-10 Habit, Loyalty, and Repeat Purchasestill locked

F2-12 Integration: the consumerstill locked

F3

F3-01 What Market Research Actually Is§ Sources

F3-03 Quantitative Research — Measuring the Whatstill locked

F3-04 Survey Design and the Art of Asking Questionsstill locked

F3-06 Segmentation Researchstill locked

F3-08 From Data to Insightstill locked

F3-09 Data Literacy and the Modern Marketing Stackstill locked

F3-10 Integration: the researcherstill locked

F4

F4-01 The STP Framework — Leader or Challenger, Not the Same Game§ Two companies, the same year, opposite strategies

F4-02 Segmentation — Dividing Markets That Don't Want to Be Dividedstill locked

F4-03 Targeting — The Great Mass vs Niche Debatestill locked

F4-04 The Penetration Imperative — the leader disciplinestill locked

F4-05 Positioning — Mental slot, distinctive asset, and cultural tensionstill locked

F4-06 Differentiation — Real, Relative, and Perceivedstill locked

F4-07 Perceptual Maps and Competitive Analysisstill locked

F4-08 Customer Personas — Useful Fiction or Dangerous Fantasy?still locked

F4-09 STP in B2B Marketsstill locked

F4-10 STP in the Digital Agestill locked

F4-11 When STP Goes Wrong — Anti-Casesstill locked

F4-12 Integration: the STP strategist — leader, challenger, and the peer debatestill locked

F5

F5-01 What is Brand Equity?

F5-02 The Aaker Model: Five Dimensions of Brand Equitystill locked

F5-03 Keller's CBBE Pyramid: Building Brands Step by Stepstill locked

F5-04 How Brands Grow: The Ehrenberg-Bass Challengestill locked

F5-05 Mental Availability & Category Entry Pointsstill locked

F5-06 Physical Availability: The Forgotten Growth Leverstill locked

F5-07 Distinctiveness vs. Differentiation: The Core Tensionstill locked

F5-08 Distinctive Brand Assets: Building & Measuringstill locked

F5-10 Brand Positioning & Relative Differentiationstill locked

F5-11 Brand Health Measurementstill locked

F5-12 Brand in the Digital Agestill locked

F5-14 Integration: the brandstill locked

F6

F6-02 Product — The Centre of Gravitystill locked

F6-03 Price — The Only P That Generates Revenuestill locked

F6-05 Place: Physical Availability and the Unfinished Revolutionstill locked

F6-06 Promotion: Communications Within the Mixstill locked

F6-09 Common Marketing Mix Mistakesstill locked

F6-10 Integration: the mix managerstill locked

F7

F7-01 Communications strategy — System 1, social phenomenon, and the diagnostic questions§ The dual register

F7-03 The Long and the Short of Itstill locked

F7-05 Emotional vs. Rational: The Brain Science of Advertisingstill locked

F7-06 The Attention Economystill locked

F7-08 Media Planning Principlesstill locked

F7-09 ESOV and Share of Voicestill locked

F7-10 Digital Communications in Contextstill locked

F8

F8-01 What Digital Marketing Actually Is

F8-02 The Fundamentals Still Applystill locked

F8-03 Search — Intent vs Demand Generationstill locked

F8-04 Social Media — Reach, Attention, and the Engagement Mythstill locked

F8-07 Content Marketing and the Noise Problemstill locked

F8-08 Personalisation and the Privacy Endgamestill locked

F8-10 Integration: the digital marketerstill locked

F9

F9-01 Marketing finance — pricing as the lever, MROI as the instrument§ The question the CFO does not ask

F9-02 ROI, ROMI, and the Measurement Trapstill locked

F9-03 Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and Its Limitsstill locked

F10

F10-02 In-House vs Agency — The False Dichotomystill locked

F10-04 The Brief — Where Most Marketing Fails Before It Startsstill locked

F10-07 The Marketing Team as Systemstill locked

F10-08 Integration: the marketing organisationstill locked

F11

F11-01 What Marketing Ethics Actually Is§ The evidence: regulation, trust, and the long-term effects of lying

F11-03 Privacy, Data, and the GDPR Realitystill locked

F12

F12-01 What Marketing Strategy Actually Is§ Porter, Mintzberg, Martin — and what remains of Ritson

F12-05 The STP Core — Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning in Practicestill locked

F12-06 Budget, Allocation, and the 60/40 Rulestill locked

F12-08 Execution Quality — Why Most Strategies Fail in the Doingstill locked

F12-09 Measurement, Feedback Loops, and Adaptive Strategystill locked

F12-10 Integration: the marketing strategiststill locked

M1

M1-01 The Portability Test — Which Laws Travel and Which Do Notstill locked

M1-02 FMCG — The Evidence Heartlandstill locked

M1-03 Mental and Physical Availability at Full Strengthstill locked

M1-04 The Limits of the FMCG Templatestill locked

M1-05 Do the Laws Hold in Subscription Markets?still locked

M1-06 Churn, Retention and the Leaky Bucketstill locked

M1-07 Product-Led Growth, Category Creation and Tech Folklorestill locked

M1-08 Double Jeopardy in Banking and Insurancestill locked

M1-09 Trust and Availability in Low-Interest Categoriesstill locked

M1-11 Long Cycles, Long Memories — Automotive Buying Behaviourstill locked

M1-12 Being Remembered Between Purchasesstill locked

M1-13 The Grudge Purchase — Marketing a Commoditystill locked

M1-14 Green Claims and the Purpose Temptationstill locked

M1-15 Do the Laws Survive the Prescription Pad?still locked

M1-16 Marketing Under Ethical and Regulatory Constraintstill locked

M1-17 Choosing Care — Insurers, Hospitals and the Annual Switchstill locked

M1-18 The Retailer as Brand — Shopper Lawsstill locked

M1-19 The Platform Squeeze and Retail Mediastill locked

M1-20 The Sector Test as Methodstill locked

M2

M2-04 Governing brand decisions — who decides what, and who gets to say nostill locked

M2-10 The bothist marketing leaderstill locked

M3

M3-01 The Armoury and the Evidence — the brand as competitive instrumentstill locked

M3-02 Brand Equity as an Entry Barrier — what the evidence supportsstill locked

M3-03 Distinctiveness versus Differentiation — the masterclassstill locked

M3-05 Competitive Intelligence — from Dirichlet norms to war gamesstill locked

M3-06 Portfolio as Order of Battle — flankers, fighters and architecture against competitorsstill locked

M3-07 Defending Against Private Label and Hard Discountersstill locked

M3-09 Crisis and the Reputation Reservoir — the brand under firestill locked

M3-10 The War Room — capstone: the competitive brand auditstill locked

M4

M4-01 How Do We Know Effectiveness Is Declining? — A Meta-Openingstill locked

M4-02 The Evidence — IPA Databank Trends Since 2006still locked

M4-04 60/40 Revisited — Median, Not Lawstill locked

M6

M6-04 Snickers 'You're Not You': a platform that travelsstill locked

M6-05 Old Spice: virality and the attribution questionstill locked

M6-06 Compare the Meerkat: assets in a boring categorystill locked

M6-08 McDonald's 'Raise Your Arches': assets without a logostill locked

M6-09 Share a Coke: personalisation on a distinctive canvasstill locked

M6-11 Dove Real Beauty: purpose before purpose was coolstill locked

M6-12 Liquid Death: entertainment-first brandingstill locked

M6-15 Dollar Shave Club: the fairytale and the invoicestill locked

M6-20 Peloton: mistaking a spike for a trendstill locked

M6-25 Bud Light 2023: know whose brand it isstill locked

M6-27 Kodak: the case that proves whatever you wantstill locked

M6-30 Capstone: what does generalise across 28 cases?still locked

Appears in A1 · F2 · F4 · F5 · M1

Related concepts

Andrew Ehrenberg Mental availability Double jeopardy

Referenced by

Ehrenberg-Bass Institute Mark Ritson

Sources

Byron Sharp (2010)
Jenni Romaniuk & Byron Sharp (2022)

Machine-written definition; editorial curation in progress.