How Brands Grow summary

If you’ve ever considered how brands grow, you probably came to the correct conclusion that it all comes down to how many customers they have. But how exactly do brands increase their customer base?

In general, a customer base grows in two ways: acquiring new customers and holding on to existing ones.

How often do you buy Coca-Cola? Every day? Once a week? Once a year?

In terms of consumption, there are two kinds of buyers: light and heavy. Light buyers purchase a given item only occasionally, while heavy buyers purchase it more frequently.

One of the more popular marketing strategies that brands deploy is creating a relationship with customers to increase their loyalty. Behind this strategy is the belief that branding has a massive influence over customer preferences.

For example, in a famous study that focused on consumer preferences, subjects participated in a blind taste test to determine which drink they preferred, Coca-Cola or Pepsi.

Most of us have wandered the streets of an unfamiliar city with our stomachs rumbling and gone to eat at the nearest fast food restaurant. But have you ever considered why you choose a particular brand over others?

Marketers focus on capturing your attention by making their products and services different from all the others.

The previous blinks suggest that advertising isn’t as effective as commonly thought. But is that reason enough to abandon it completely?

To answer that, let’s first look at how advertising works on consumers.

We’ve all seen “ON SALE!” signs in store windows throughout our lives. But have you ever wondered why brands use these price promotions?

Because their effect on sales is directly visible, usually resulting in a short-term spike in sales.

Since profit increases are dependent on an increased customer base, good marketers focus their efforts on attracting new customers.

But getting consumers to notice a brand isn’t easy.

The key message in this book:

Marketers shouldn’t just blindly follow marketing myths because they’re conventional or because they might’ve worked out at some point in the past. Instead, they should consider the empirical evidence of marketing science and do what’s already been proven to work, as this will increase their chances of success.