Mass vs Personalization – Opinion Piece by Fabiola Juarez Toquero

It is well known that nowadays customer service is the most important ingredient for a company to grow and continue in the demanding marketplace but, apparently not all marketers think so. In this opinion article, I will explain the main concept behind the book "How Brands Grow" by Byron Sharp.?

Byron Sharp's theory emphasizes that the secret to growing brands consists of two main components:

• Physical availability: Being in the right place, at the right time, and with the right product that the customer needs. In other words, this refers to how well a company handles its distribution in time and space. For example, if your medicine is out of stock at Rexall in your neighborhood but there is a Shoppers on the same street that does have it we could assume that Shoppers is following Sharp’s philosophy. Another example is Tim Horton’s on every corner and in every building in Canada. The same applies to Starbucks in the US and Oxxo, a chain of convenience stores in Mexico. They are everywhere and they have the most flexible operating hours.?
• Mental availability: According to Gebert (2015) mental availability is the probability of a consumer?noticing, recognizing, and thinking of your brand?in a buying situation. (Para. 4) Companies that do this very well are Coca-Cola, Nike, Redbull, and Apple. They all have distinctive assets that allow them to create memorable and attractive advertising.

“The realization that you drive penetration growth by reaching really ultra-light buyers: that's a nuance that not everyone gets” (Sharp qtd in Tiltman, 2020) refers that brands should not drive their efforts on retaining existing customers (because loyal buyers will buy you anyway), instead they should be focusing on new customer acquisition amongst non-users, light users and switchers from other brands through the lenses of mental and physical availability. He states that the higher the market share, the higher the customer loyalty so the work brands must do is to get more new customers.

?As stated in Liddell’s article (2021) rather than creating an ‘astonishing amount of choice’, Byron Sharp’s laws of growth demand a single-minded pursuit of penetration, at the cost of any form of meaningful differentiation (Para.19) which results in companies targeting the same audiences, the same products to the greatest needs and at the most demanded prices in the most popular channels.

Although Byron Sharp's theory sounds tempting and has proven to have worked for some companies that have adopted his technique since the year of publication of the book (2010), e.g., Facebook and Google, I firmly believe that it has more value in my purchasing decision to receive a friendly and personalized treatment throughout my customer journey. It’s highly important to be mentally and physically available for the customers but we should not take for granted the existing customers because they can leave just as easily as they arrived and switch to another company if they are not treated properly. Sales are only a small part of the big picture.

However, I support Ritson's perspective on the 60/40 rule which consists in balancing the long-term activation (mass marketing-brand building) with the short-term activation (granular segments-targeted) and as all rules have exceptions, there will be companies that will have to adjust it to their needs, for example, online-only businesses will be closer to 80/20 or 90/10. Marketers should see this theory as a guide rather than a rule.

“If you have a tree, we want to pick the fruit, but we also want to water the tree as well. Short-term = picking of the sales, long-term = feeding of the brand. If you start to pick too many fruits and you don’t keep watering the tree, ultimately there isn’t any fruit to pick anymore.” Shalendra111. (2019). Byron Sharp Vs Mark Ritson - Sophisticated Mass Marketing Vs a Segmented Approach [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr4J3WfGsvA

References:

Tiltman, D. (2020, September 28). Byron Sharp on the legacy of how brands grow – and why he disagrees with Les Binet: WARC. WARC An Ascential Company. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/byron-sharp-on-the-legacy-of-how-brands-grow--and-why-he-disagrees-with-les-binet/3837

Liddell, N. (2021, June 30). Byron Sharp – brand purpose and the tyranny of the majority. Brandingmag. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.brandingmag.com/2021/06/30/byron-sharp-brand-purpose-and-the-tyranny-of-the-majority/

Fallarme, D. (2020, August 23). How brands grow: A short summary. The Marketing Student. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from https://www.themarketingstudent.com/how-brands-grow/