The Laws of Growth are growing brands across all industries. This quick guide will help you understand how to deploy them.

1. THE SCIENCE BEHIND
BRAND BUILDING
HOW BRANDS GROW
REFERENCE GUIDE

2. MENTAL AVAILIBILITY
DISTINCTIVE
PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY
GROWTH
PENETRATION The biggest takeaway from the
book is that brands grow by
gaining more buyers through
penetration.
You gain more buyers by simply
making your brand easier to
buy.
The easiest way to make your
brand easier to buy is by making
it distinctive, making it both
physically and mentally available
when consumers have a need.

3. LAWS OF GROWTH
Based on empirical evidence, Byron Sharp challenges some of the
approaches marketers have accepted for years as drivers of growth.
His research points out that consumers buy and sales grow in predictable
patterns that he calls “laws of growth”.
These laws can help marketers better understand what really drives
brand growth and inspire ideas around making their brands easier to buy.

4. FOCUS MORE ON PENETRATION
Penetration drives brand growth more than buy rate does.
Brands grow when they win over more light buyers, more so
than focusing on getting heavy buyers to buy more.
According to Byron, Pareto’s principle of 20% of customers
being responsible for 80% of sales. He suggests that heavy
buyers on average account for roughly 50% of sales.
There are many more non-users and light buyers than there are
heavy users and thus marketers should focus on these groups
more than they currently do.

5. FOCUS ON LIGHT BUYERS
To grow a brand, target occasional, light buyers.
The “law of buyer moderation” says light buyers will become
heavier and heavy buyers will become lighter.

6. FOCUS LESS ON HEAVY BUYERS AND LOYALTY
Don’t rely on a loyal following of your brand to drive growth. Very
few consumers are “loyal”. Loyalty promotions don’t drive brand
growth effectively.
The reality is that light buyers split their loyalties across a number of
brands – for example, 72% of Coke drinkers also buy Pepsi.
Because there are so many more light users and this group comprises
a very significant proportion of a brand’s purchases.

7. MARKET TO THE MASSES
Customer bases are not as distinct as we may think. Multiple
brands in a category almost always share at least some parts of a
common customer base.
Market to the masses and communicate often, with relentless
consistency. This will influence more light buyers to consider your
brand when they have a need.

8. PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY
Your brand must be available when customers are ready to
make a purchase.
This involves maximizing distribution and ensuring minimal
physical obstacles to purchase.
Ultimately, the more physical availability a brand has, the easier
it is to buy.

9. MENTAL AVAILABILITY
A brand’s mental availability refers to the probability that a buyer will
notice, recognize and/or think of a brand in buying situations.
Higher mental availability means being easily noticed and/or thought of in
many different buying situations or consumer entry points (CEPs).
The easier the brand is to access from memory, in more buying situations,
for more consumers, then the higher the overall mental availability.
Ultimately, the more mental availability a brand has, the easier it is to buy.

10. MEMORY STRUCTURES
A brand’s mental availability depends on the quality and
quantity of memory structures related to the brand.
These are the associations that make the brand familiar and
make it easier for the consumer to make the purchase.

11. “ALWAYS BE ON” PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY
Be consistent in message and timing. Brands need to be
“always on”, which means that they need to communicate
often and to as many consumers as possible.

12. Consumers rarely notice product differentiation, but they can notice a
brand’s uniqueness.
Differentiation: A product/brand is seen as being different from other
brands (i.e., perceived needs met, benefits, product differences).
Distinctiveness: Even though a brand may be very similar to other
brands in the category (not differentiated) it can be have distinctive,
strong, and unique assets and mental associations (i.e., logo,
emotional, packaging, sensory, perceptual, etc.) that make it stand out
in consumer’s mind; thus, increasing its likelihood of purchase.
DISTINCTIVENESS NOT DIFFERENTIATION

13. DISTINCTIVE BRAND ASSETS
Distinctive Brand Assets are consistent sensory & semantic cues
(i.e. colors, names, logos, taglines, jingles, product designs,
pack designs, and communication elements) that make it easier
for consumers to identify your brand and recall the associations
related to it.
Brand growth occurs when marketers understand and leverage
their distinctive brand assets effectively to build mental
availability.

14. IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS & INSIGHTS LEADERS
1. Focus more on marketing activities that will drive penetration, and less on activities that drive buy rate.
2. Focus more on communications that appeal to many light buyers, less so on targeting fewer heavy buyers.
3. Focus more on being distinctive, by building physical and mental availability, less on differentiation.
4. Uncover what core associations are most likely going to drive penetration and reinforce them repeatedly.
5. Uncover or evolve distinctive brand assets that can reinforce your brand’s core associations consistently.

15. APPENDIX
LAWS OF GROWTH

16. LAW OF DOUBLE JEOPARDY
Brands with less market share have fewer buyers, who buy
them less often.
The larger market share a brand has, the higher its penetration,
and the higher its buy rate.

17. LAW OF BUYER MODERATION
Light buyers will become heavier and heavy buyers will become
lighter.

18. DUPLICATION OF PURCHASES LAW
All brands within a category share their customer base with other
brands in line with the size of those other brands.
Smaller brands share more customers with large brands, while
larger brands share fewer customers with smaller brands.

19. APPENDIX
Hotspex Marketing & Behavioral Science Team

20. Want to learn more or share these insights with your team?
Contact us at brandbuilders@hotspex.com

21. Jonathan La Greca
Vice President,
Strategic Growth & Brand Building
For over 15 years, Jonathan has been spearheading brand strategy, innovation,
and activation, while leading high performing teams across 5 different
industries.
As Vice President, Strategic Growth and Brand Building at Hotspex, Jonathan has
fostered and strengthened relationships with 15 of the Top 20 global advertising
brands, ensuring Hotspex has ranked among top global insights consultancies
for 3 consecutive years. He has launched cutting edge marketing and behavioral
science methodologies, while building innovative marketing and business
development processes internally, as Hotspex has disrupted a stagnant industry
to achieve double digit growth.
Jonathan earned his MBA at the Schulich School of Business, where he received
the highest academic honor of the Gold Medal for the top graduating GPA. He is
an innovator and brand builder with a fierce passion for entrepreneurship,
having founded a meditation studio and outdoor boot camp program.
Jonathan and the rest of the brand building team at Hotspex would love to
tackle your toughest brand challenge.
Contact: Jonathan.Lagreca@Hotspex.com (416) 903-7958

22. Shane Skillen
Founder & CEO
“Uberification” is upon us. Technology is disrupting just about every industry. Whether you
are in marketing, advertising, or consumer insights, your company is likely facing massive
change. Will your company fight to survive or will it go beyond that and thrive? What can you
do to proactively lead your organization to leverage technology to do more with less?
The key is to apply new cutting edge insights and methodologies from the most recent
advances in the fields of marketing and behavioral sciences to help your marketing team build
mental availability that influences consumers and shoppers and accelerates brand growth.
Proud to have been among the top global insights consultancies over the past 3 years, Shane
and his team of brand builders at Hotspex are on a mission to become the world’s most
innovative and impactful brand builders. By focusing on brand building basics, they are
helping 15 of the top 20 global advertising brands across 25 countries evolve and grow in the
face of category headwinds, zero-based budgeting, and mergers & acquisitions. Shane is
passionate about sharing the latest psychology and neuroscience to inspire fresh thinking that
helps global brands build mental availability and grow at an unprecedented pace.
Shane is always looking to meet new brand builders to discuss the future of marketing,
advertising, and consumer insights.
Contact: Shane.Skillen@Hotspex.com