How Brands Grow: Part 2: Emerging Markets, Services, Durables, New and Luxury Brands

by Jenni Romaniuk, Byron Sharp

Following the success of international bestseller How Brands What Marketer's Don't Know comes a new book that takes readers further on a journey to smarter, evidence-based marketing.

How Brands Grow Part 2 , by Jenni Romaniuk and Byron Sharp, is about fundamentals of buying behaviour and brand performance - fundamentals that provide a consistent roadmap for brand growth, and improved marketing productivity.

Ride the next wave of marketing knowledge with insights such as how to build Mental Availability, metrics to assess the strength of your brand's Distinctive Assets and a framework to underpin your brand's Physical Availability strategy. Learn practical insights such as smart ways to look at word of
mouth and the sort of advertising needed to attract new brand buyers.

This book is also a must read for marketers working in emerging markets, services, durables and luxury categories, with evidence that will challenge conventional wisdom about growing brands in these markets. If you've ever wondered if word of mouth has more impact in China, if luxury brands break
all the rules of marketing or if online shoppers are more loyal to brands or retailers, this book is for you.

If you read and loved How Brands Grow, it's time to move to the next level of marketing. And if you haven't, get ready -- this book will change the way you think about marketing forever.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Education, Design, Buisness

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 19, 2016

About the author

Jenni Romaniuk is a Research Professor and Associate Director (International) of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at the University of South Australia Business School.

Reviews

[Henry Manampiring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drop your Kotler, NOW!

This is ESSENTIAL for anyone in Marketing and Branding. Forget your standard Kotler book. If you are new in the field, read this first. If you are seasoned, unlearn what you THINK you know, and read this too.

This is the sequel to the brilliant How Brands Grow. The part 2 answers many doubters of the first book that the principles acquired only applies to developed countries. With data from numerous developing markets, including Indonesia, you will see the laws of growth apply universally.

For those not acquainted with the first book, How Brands Grow is EVIDENCE-BASED marketing book. The authors used robust and extensive data from numerous countries to reveal the laws in marketing. This is different from many marketing textbooks that rely on "anecdotes". A lot of the findings go against old marketing conventions (like targeting loyal heavy users for their advocacy effect, or differentiation/USP concept).

This book is VERY recommended, but do read the original How Brands Grow first.

[Julian Tooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly underwhelming. So much of the book is rehashing the points made in his first book to demonstrate that developing markets are actually similar to developed markets. This can get a bit tedious.

[Rūta Putnikienė · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nuostabi, kaip ir pirma dalis. Niekada nepasakytum pagal viršelį!

[Jose Restrepo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Insightful fact based and refreshing. Builds nicely on the first book and provides hard data on how marketing works best.

[Suman Srivastava · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book continues from where part 1 ended. This is more of a manual on how to grow brands now that you know of the existence of the law of double jeopardy (established in the first book in detail and in chapter 1 here). The guidelines took grow brands are not substantiated with case studies, and so one isn't always sure of how to use these ideas. Also some of the Tenets seem debatable. A client recently told me that marketers have known of the double jeopardy law all along but agency people have only just discovered it. Well, I'm not so sure of that. But certainly it's worth knowing and using. If only to prove it wrong.

[Budaallmusic · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second part of the myth breaking, Kotler is dead facts. Science and Marketing. Killing unicorns and putting to shame 99% of marketing schools.

[Ryan T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Brands Grow Part 2 builds on the theory of the first book and takes it to the next level. It sharpens the focus, offers practical depth, and dives into how brands can actively grow market share by boosting both mental and physical availability.

Part 2 expands the theory its predecessor, by emphasising on consumer behaviour and the influence of digital channels in shaping brand perception. Romaniuk and Sharp zoom in on physical availability with three clear pillars: Presence, Prominence and Portfolio. They also expand the theory with concepts like Category Entry Points (CEPs), Word of Mouth, and strategies for launching new brands.

The book stands out by applying the theory across a broader range of markets and categories, from emerging markets like China, Indonesia, and Brazil, to services, durables, B2B, and even luxury brands. This makes the insights more widely applicable, beyond just FMCG. Yet, the core principles of building brand recognition, reinforcing brand associations, and staying top of mind, remain universally powerful.

What I certainly appreciated was the structure. Each chapter opens with what to expect and ends with a clear conclusion. This was a nice change from its predecessor, where Sharp’s point sometimes got lost in the flow.
Part 2 gave me more depth and broadened the scope of the theory. Especially the insights around B2B branding felt relevant to my world, even though the chapter remained somewhat on the surface due to limited data. While it didn’t had the same impact as the first book, it definitely added value. Now that I think of it, sequels seldom have the same impact as their predecessor.

Rating: 8 / 10

[Jake Goretzki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stating the bleeding obvious a lot of the time, but doing so with plenty of statistical backing. The first one was groundbreaking because it finally buried the bollocks that was 'brand love' and reined in the tendency to over focus on specific (purportedly loyal, heavy) segments and rarified positionings. This follow up carries on the theme, with examples from across markets and categories. Turns out luxury brands behave very like standard ones too.

Sure, some of it is so obvious it barely merits mention; people buy less frequently from small brands because you don't see them around as much and don't have them in mind. And brands need good, memorable logos and straplines. Oh really.

Still, it's quite refreshing to hear, coming from a category where snake oil and bullshit are the default. Byron knows his onions. Trust him.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can only hope to someday be blessed with a belief as all-encompassing and sure as the How Brands Grow crew's belief in physical and mental availability. Hard to tell if this book actually puts forward any new ideas, since I have seen this material many ways and times now, but it certainly did not actually speak much to the secondary title of emerging markets and luxury brands. Those were only two chapters in the ongoing availability fest. Which, to be fair, I feel pretty on board with - it makes sense, and they have charts! Can't be wrong with charts. Counter-arguments were trivialized, but I wish they had presented more quant data on those, since anecdotally many brands seemed to succeed with more of a segmentation strategy. Or maybe they are just distracting themselves from the true source of their success, our Lord and Savior Physical and Mental Availability.

[Samuel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Sharp and Romaniuk.

I really enjoyed how they explored how to build mental and physical availability for brands, they also touched on how to create and leverage distinctive brand assets which are quite new for me. Another aspect they discussed was breaking down common assumptions on how Word-of-Mouth (WoM) marketing actually works.

It was also great to see that they also touched on understanding how to achieve optimal reach, and the importance on reaching light and medium buyers of a brand, rather than just focusing on heavy category buyers.

If you're in any type of marketing role, would recommend getting your hands on this.

[Powel Talwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. The books (both 1 and 2) seemed lot more connected to reality and shopper behaviour you see in real life. At first, I doubted a lot of claims made in Book 1 but as I finished the book, I was able to see the whole picture the author wanted to paint and could appreciate the idea more ( double jeopardy felt more of an outcome than a law). What really helped me was taking any idea and just replicating to any small market or case around me ( biscuits, fast food, Dove vs Sebamed etc) to validate or question.

Good use of data, easy to read, simple ideas; don’t understand why they aren’t as popular (or are they just expensive). Definitely enjoyed reading both the books.

[Jinal Sampat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Some of the insights are really valuable to know. Customers who buy your brand also buy other brands. It’s all about market share. For a brand to develop: one needs to be mentally and physically available.

Loved the last chapter on luxury brands as it was most relevant to me at this time. Luxury brands are bought by middle class consumer more then billionaires and that’s how they can sustain it as the number of middle class people is way higher then billionaires.

Great date and charts to go along every assumption.

[Angie Ma · Rating 3 out of 5]

It will blow most of your marketing/ business ideology assumptions away with proven data & chartss. But take in mind, this book is more for medium-big brands that are looking to grow in market shares, for smaller brands, it should be done in a more strategized approach or maybe started off with a niche target audience.

I am totally on board with the crew’s belief in building physical and mental availability. Yet, in this post covid digitalized world and with the rise in cost for dtc retail, the practicality is really getting complicated.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I took a whole month to read this very short book! It was so hard to stick with. Way too many graphs, tables and facts and figures. I work in advertising sales and this book is probably better suited to someone starting out studying marketing, as it's very broad. I feel like you could just read the summaries at the end of each chapter and have understood the concepts without having to digest all the overwhelming tables. I found this really dry.

[Jokūbas Šatrauskas · Rating 4 out of 5]

For me this book creates ambiguous feelings. I do really like 1-3 chapters of this book and I was writing down some ideas on the paper, however, the rest of the book became a bit borring I and made myself to finisht it. I don’t really agree on the part which highlights the power of reach. To my mind,
you surely need to scale your product/service sales, but only by showing your product to the relevant ones. It should be his/hers product/headline but not everyones.

[Bradley MacLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I loved hearing the concepts in this book and how thought provoking it is, I believe there is more complexity than what is gleaned over in the book. Different circumstances calls for varying methodology and strategy, it is a bit over simplified for actual practice.

However it isn’t all doom and gloom for these concepts, there is a time and place for this ideology within certain circumstances and is a great set of tools to have in your back pocket

Will need to read the first next

[Khanh Bui · Rating 4 out of 5]

The part 2 continues to challenge the conventional marketing beliefs and debunk myths on a wide range of essential topics to drive brand growth. The insights from the book set the foundation for marketeers to build a new launch or manage an existing brand. Interesting findings on the impact of digital marketing and how to make effective use of this channel.

[Victor Volpe · Rating 5 out of 5]

HBG 2 is even better than the first book. It gives more evidence to support the marketing laws and clarifies the few exceptions to them. A true masterpiece, yet still under appreciated. I personally try to use this knowledge as my north star in the midst of a fast pace changing marketing landscape.

[Zeeshan Ehtisham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book(s) is so good it forced me to write a review, The branding we have been learning has always been high up in the heavens, This is the real stuff though which can be experienced by anybody who has worked in market reading consumers and how brands actually grow and how you take your business forward....

[Povilas Krikščiūnas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a great book on marketing in general, however, the second book is only an extension to the first book. All of the topics were already mentioned in the first book. The second book only offered an extended version with more arguments to support the points already mentioned in the first book, and did it through the lens of focusing on emerging markets.

[Matthew Hodge · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt a third of the book was a repeat of the first one, which perhaps made this a bit of a slog, but some useful information here on brand, particularly on what kind of assets you need to develop to grow the market.

Giving thought to how this might work in my own field of classical music marketing, where we do a lot of short sales-based promotion but less general brand-based marketing.

[Anastázie Sedláková · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect book, even for person with no marketing background. I like analytical approach to explain purchase behaviour. I really like part about Category Entry points, as it helped me even in my daily life to understand my purchase habits.
I gave it 4 stars because it was often hard to read.
Overall, I highly recommend this book for everyone interested in marketing.

[Stefan Bruun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picks up were part 1 ended. A practical guide to growing your brand (based on double jeopardy). I particularly appreciate the data backing up the claims - something many marketing books could learn from.

[Maria Yatsenko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Мені б хотілося, щоб цю книгу прочитала кожна людина в світі. Закони, описані в цій книзі, можна застосувати до будь-чого, чи то бізнесу, чи то особистого життя. Шкодую, що раніше не знала про автора і його роботу. Він змінив моє бачення функціонування і росту брендів.

[Stephen Hutchins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though not all the data aligns with what I have seen in the SaaS/games market, this book makes a great case for how to maximise the impact of your marketing budget and assets through reach and the pitfalls of analysing your own business data in silo without understanding your size in a market.

[Bohdan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Повторение — мать, хотя может стоило просто перечитать первую часть.

[Kutluhan Kutbay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pazarlamaya dair mitlerin kanıtlarla yanlış olduğu anlatılan, bol bol örneklerle okuyucunun gözüne sokulan bir kitap. Çeviriyi hiç beğenmedim, ayrıca çok fazla yazım hatası vardı.

[Ahmad Badghaish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it’s good to deeply read this sequel, to anyone who’s involved in the business side.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helped to remind me of some key insights to take to my job

[Peter Noszek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just rehashing points made in the first book, with different data. Would not recommend anyone to read - best to just stick with Part 1.