How Brands Grow - Is there a Science to Marketing?

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science is based right here in Adelaide, South Australia. Professor Byron Sharp authored How Brands Grow: what marketers don’t know and is based on decades of research that has progressively uncovered scientific laws about buying and brand performance. This book is the first to present these laws in context, and explore their meaning and marketing applications.

It’s primarily targeted towards fast moving consumer goods, and less about services, but it’s still a good read with much you can learn and apply. Tess read it.

In fact, Tess studied Marketing at the institute.

In layman terms, brands grow by balancing two principles

1. Mental Availability – people need to know you exist.

2. Physical Availability – people need to be able to access you.

The idea of brand love, brand personality, brand loyalty – although they all have their place, for the majority of businesses they fall way down the list in terms of priorities.

If people don’t recall you in a buying situation (the measure of mental availability – the idea that your brand is associated with something they’re looking to purchase) then they simply cannot purchase from you.

If people recall you in a buying situation but you’re not accessible (the measure of physical availability – you don’t have a good website, you take too long to get back to their enquiry, you’re too far away) they’ll simply purchase from someone else instead. The idea that your consumer is loyal to you and will only ever buy from you in simply a farse.

So, how do you increase mental availability and physical availability for building your brand?

Well today’s just your day – we break it down for you here.

We also recommend Sharp’s How Brands Grow for deeper reading if you have the time.