For every business student an important consideration is: “What type of firm should I work for when I graduate? Would a career be more beneficial in a firm with strong brands or would firms with small brands provide more opportunity?” Such career questions are not normally dealt with in marketing textbooks. However, this book does provide some insights as to what life is like for managers and owners of both large and small brands as it deals with the advantages and disadvantages of brand size.
First, this book is aimed at marketing practitioners and its title has immediate appeal, as firms all want their brands to grow. Second readers, will be interested in learning about solutions to some of the common marketing problems encountered by managers. In a compact text of 200 pages, readers of this volume should not only have their understanding of brand management increased but also have some of the popular marketing “myths” dispelled.
Byron Sharp and his colleagues (referred hereafter as “the author”) contribute a series of chapters that bridge the gap between the conventional brand wisdom and the evidence that challenges some of the usual recommendations made by advertising agencies or marketing consultants to their clients. Unlike many brand books, which often have more of a communications or consumer psychology grounding, much of this book considers the research evidence from the marketing science literature.
Inside the front cover, a series of statements or “myths” allows the reader to decide whether these are true or false. Refuting these “myths” sets the tone for this volume, and the first chapter is entitled “Evidence‐based marketing”. This chapter begins with a typical marketing scenario concerning a brand manager of a lower‐share brand. The scenario serves to highlight the marketing mistakes that can occur when an intuitive view of marketing is adopted. The book points out the necessity of properly evaluating the evidence before making a branding decision and discusses some of the empirical generalizations that emerge from the academic literature.
The second chapter develops the scenario in the previous chapter and highlights the importance of brand size, which is illustrated with some Nielsen market share information. In this section, the author also uses these examples to explain the double jeopardy law. This law is one of several laws of marketing that are discussed in the text. Often, discussion of such marketing issues is confined to the academic literature, but the author brings these issues to a wider audience, explaining these findings in a non‐technical way. For readers who wish to know more, there are some suggestions for further reading at the back of this chapter.
Given that size differences exist between brands, the next chapter offers some solutions as to what managers can do about this size disparity. The importance of customer acquisition rather than retention is also a focus of this chapter. The fourth chapter then highlights the importance of thinking about the occasional buyer rather relying on the regular customer to buy a greater quantity, more often. Next, the author explains the pitfalls of target marketing and concludes that one brand's buyers are much the same as another brand. In Chapter 6, the author draws marketers' attention to the fact that all brands in a category share customers with each other. This finding will resonate with the practical experience of many brand managers; however it is at odds with the usual wisdom of many marketing commentators on mass marketing, product variants, and target marketing. The chapter deals with multi‐brand portfolios, and one implication is that brand rationalization (recently made by firms such as Unilever) should be based on operational considerations rather than any perceived market overlap between brands.
Chapter 7 deals with customer loyalty to a brand, which is often mentioned as the payoff for media expenditure (or “investment” in agency speak). The author points out that brand loyalty is not exclusive and in fact is rather rare. Again, the author presents market research data to support these conclusions. Brands such as Apple and Harley are often cited as examples of having high brand loyalty, and the facts and fallacies concerning these two brands are carefully explained.
The importance of distinctiveness versus differentiation is then discussed. True differentiation is difficult to achieve as most brands have shared brand associations rather than unique associations. The later chapters focus on marketing implementation, beginning with advertising, followed by the relationship between advertising and price promotions. The purpose of advertising and its long‐term benefits is then contrasted with the short‐term focus of price promotions. At the end of the chapter there are some recommendations for effective brand advertising. The next chapter examines price promotions more fully, highlighting both their cost and potential for diverting funds away from other brand‐building activities.
Another area of brand communication addressed by the book is loyalty programs. The authors discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these programs and their tendency to reward existing customers. The final chapters deal with how customers behave at point of purchase and underline the importance of brand salience and brand availability in distribution channels. In this book, the discussion of the marketing mix is limited mainly to advertising, loyalty programs, and price promotions. Although there is some coverage of brand presence at point of purchase, trade marketing and distribution issues are ignored. Furthermore, other marketing implementation issues relevant to brands such as advertising media selection, utilizing an online presence, and sales promotion are not discussed.
This book is written in a conversational yet precise style, and it contains much advice that marketing managers will find useful. In each chapter many examples illustrate the main points often using data sourced from the market research industry. The tables are easy to follow and the use of statistical terms is carefully avoided. However, for the reader who wants to delve further into each topic, a comprehensive set of references is provided at the end of the book. These reference lists could have been better placed at the end of each chapter.
There are many very good examples or mini‐cases throughout the book, and a series of questions directed at the marketing practitioner would have been a useful addition at the end of each chapter. The book also contains much useful material for executive students, advertising agency personnel and marketing consultants.
