'How brands grow'​ is not always how you want to grow.

The whole premise of 'how brands grow' by Byron Sharp is about companies wanting to capture market share. A lot of people get upset when you tell them that 'differentiation' isn't going to help them do that (alone). Or that focusing on loyalty instead of acquisition isn't the right strategy. Or that brand purpose might not help them get there.

Especially smaller companies or solo-entrepreneurs get upset when I talk about this. But I think there is a misunderstanding here. You first need to answer this question: Do I want to take more market share? Do I want to become the 'market leader'?

For a lot of companies, that might not be the goal, and that's perfectly fine. For a lot of companies or entrepreneurs, it's about their purpose, what they want to achieve, how they want to improve the world, that's awesome. I personally love the idea of a 'company of one' (great book by Paul Jarvis). In that case, having a niche-positioning can be a perfect strategy. In that case, not using mass-market media might be perfect for you. In that case, focussing on heavy buyers might be an option.

If the challenge is: "we want to gain significant market share" we must think about things described in How brands grow. Focus on being distinctive instead of different, focus on being physically and mentally available by having the right distribution, reaching light buyers, targetting all category buyers, having an omnichannel presence, mass media advertising, ... (read How brands grow, basically).

So let's first try to define your ambitions before we actually get into a debate about what the right brand strategy is for growth. What kind of growth? Why are you in this business? What do you want to achieve? Do you want to be disruptive? Great! Do you want to change the world one product at a time? Even better! Will being a story-driven authentic brand automatically win you huge chunks of market share? You know the answer by now.