Byron Sharp cuts Philip Kotler off at the knees

[Review] Bas Vlugt: Byron Sharp - How Brands Grow

Like so many others, I try to find balance in unbalanced times. Because these days I converse with Claude every day, by way of counterbalance I also want to read every day, in paper books.

For a while now, we have been publishing reviews of newly released books at Marketing Report. So today is different: up next is How Brands Grow by Byron Sharp, without a doubt the most influential marketing author of the past 20 years.

The Tyranny of the Example

How Brands Grow appeared in 2010 and was reprinted that same year. Every year since, a new reprint has followed. In 2023, 2024 and 2025, two reprints appeared each year. In that sense, we can conclude that interest in the book has only grown.

This is academic research. It is written that way too, with references to the literature and to other researchers on every page. Everything can be checked and verified. It is also a scientific book in the sense that it builds marketing theory: general laws that hold true for brands. That is a relief, and a welcome counterpart to marketing literature that leans heavily on case studies. One moment we are discussing Red Bull, the next we are discussing Apple. But a case is only an example. And the drawback of an example is that there is always another example that suggests the exact opposite. None of that appears in Sharp's book.

Exit Kotler

Sharp brilliantly dismisses his predecessor, Philip Kotler, as the most influential marketing author:

"According to Kotler, competition for sales is about creating differentiated brands that carve off sections of market share by addressing the demand of heterogeneity... This worldview was partly responsible for the very large (and low return) investments in loyalty programs and customer relationship management that occurred towards the end of the twentieth century. On a less visible level, this worldview was also responsible for millions of misguided and productivity-sapping marketing plans... The Kotlerian worldview is not the opposite of reality, but it is a very poor representation of it. It's similar to the view that the world is flat - it isn't, though there are flattish parts."

One of the book's central claims is that loyalty programs do not work. But if Sharp is so influential, why are there still so many of them? Several sources point out that loyalty programmes have taken on a very different function from the loyalty programmes Sharp had in mind. Today, they often serve as vehicles for distributing discounts and collecting valuable customer data. In effect, you give discounts to customers who are already loyal, while consumers who are not regular customers have little interest in carrying a loyalty card.

Enduring Relevance

A great deal has happened in marketing since 2010: the arrival of influencer marketing, retail media, the growing importance and application of data, programmatic advertising, DOOH, addressable TV, social media, and the unprecedented dominance of the American tech giants. And yet How Brands Grow still reads as fresh and interesting 16 years after publication.

It does grate here and there, which is reflected in some of the criticism the book has received. The vast majority of the data comes from retail. There is little on services and nothing at all on non-profit organisations. There is also nothing on luxury brands or B2B. Sharp took some of that criticism to heart: a number of these subjects are addressed in How Brands Grow Part 2, which he wrote in 2015 together with Jenni Romaniuk.

Sharp is highly critical of the idea that brands can build added value by working on identity. A phenomenon such as a love brand does not exist, according to Sharp. Apple and Harley-Davidson do not have more loyal buyers than other brands in their categories. Brands grow primarily through physical and mental availability, he argues: a product that consumers recognise immediately, supported by consistent, continuous mass-media campaigns that reach a broad audience. Narrowing target groups, by contrast, limits a brand's ability to attract new buyers.

Sharp does not explain what constitutes good or effective advertising. What he does provide are universal mechanisms that help explain consumer behaviour. On that basis, How Brands Grow remains essential reading for every marketer.

Bas Vlugt is the founder of Marketing Report

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