I was struck by an observation from J. Walker Smith, Chief Knowledge Officer at Kantar:
“The foundational prerequisite of growth is the courage to grow. Impediments to growth sit within a company itself. Growth is rarely hostage to the marketplace.”
I like the idea that a brand is not “hostage to the marketplace” — that marketers can take agency for brand results separate from what’s happening in the outside world.
There has always been myth-making and wish-casting in what it actually takes for a brand to grow. Thanks to the work of Kantar and others, we have more data-driven resources to help guide our approach.
A few months ago, Kantar released the results of a giant research study into what they believe drives brand growth — an analysis of 6.5 billion global attitudinal and shopper data points from the last 10 years.
Kantar’s big takeaway is that “brands that are ‘meaningfully different’ to ‘more people’ command 5X penetration today and real advantage in penetration growth over the next two years.”
They expand this into three simple rules for growth: 1) predispose more people, 2) be more present, and 3) find new space.
It’s been 14 years since Byron Sharp of Ehrenberg-Bass wrote “How Brands Grow” and famously challenged the idea of “meaningful differentiation”:
“Rather than striving for meaningful, perceived differentiation, marketers should seek meaningless distinctiveness. Branding lasts, differentiation doesn’t.”
I find it interesting that Kantar reaches a totally different conclusion than Ehrenberg-Bass on the importance of differentiation. In marketing, like other areas of business, reasonable people can disagree. It’s a reminder that ultimately there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for growth.
But it’s all better than placing our hopes on the Growth Fairy.
Here are a few related cartoons I’ve drawn over the years:
