Forum: A broader view on brands’ growth and decline

What does it take to grow a brand? How to avoid its decline? Some popular answers to these questions can be found in the research by Byron Sharp and others from the Ehrenberg-Bass (EB) Institute on "how brands grow." In this article, we propose that such an approach, despite its strengths, lends itself to some limitations when taken too literally.

Introduction

What does it take to grow a brand? How to avoid its decline? Some popular answers to these questions can be found in the research by Byron Sharp and others from the Ehrenberg-Bass (EB) Institute on "how brands grow." Formalized in two milestone books (Romaniuk & Sharp, 2015; Sharp, 2010), the EB approach had the merit of restoring focus on consumer acquisition as a key driver of brand growth, based on some established, predictable patterns of shopper behavior. It gained momentum across companies as it offers an evidence-based view of marketing that differs from the paradigm of consumer relationship...

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