Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow Part 2
How Brands Grow Park 2 is written by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. Where the original book covered the theory of how brands grow, Part 2 explores how to put this theory into practice. The first few chapters recap the law-like patterns outlined in How Brands Grow Part 1.
Double jeopardy law
Law of buyer moderation
Pareto law
Natural monopoly law
Duplication of purchase law
You can read a summary of these laws here.
I’ll structure this summary around five topics that are covered in the remaining chapters of How Brands Grow Part 2: purchase barriers, distinctive assets, category entry points, physical availability and word of mouth.
Let’s jump in.
Purchase barriers: Being buyable means removing barriers to purchase. Common barriers include low quality, high expense, bad experience and negative perceptions. Marketers should understand category buyers’ purchase barriers and work to overcome them.
Category entry points: To be bought a brand must come to mind in buying situations (aka category entry points). To identify CEPs ask why, when, where, with whom & with what is the category bought. Next measure the strength of associations different brands have with each major CEP.
Distinctive brand assets: Distinctive assets are elements (type, logos etc.) that trigger the brand in the mind of buyers. Strong DBAs are famous (people know the asset) and unique (people link the asset to the brand). DBAs must be developed, measured and maintained over time.
Physical availability: Physical availability relates to how easy a brand is to find. It has 3 components: presence (are you available?), prominence (are you easy to find?) and relevance (are you suitable?). Without physical availability, your investments in mental availability is largely wasted.
Word of mouth: Three truths about WOM. Positive and negative WOM have largely the same power but the former is 2-5 times more common. Current users dominate positive WOM. Non-users dominate negative. WOM is correlated with market share. Big brands get more positive WOM than small brands
How Brands Grow Part 2 dives into many other areas, including luxury, ecommerce and small brands.
I highly recommend reading the book in full.
Pick yourself up a copy here.