Growth Usually Requires More Buyers

One of the most useful marketing ideas I have encountered is also one of the most uncomfortable for businesses.

Your most loyal customers are probably not enough to deliver the growth you want.

Organisations understandably love loyal customers. They buy more often, understand the product, require less explanation and may become advocates. Loyalty matters enormously to customer experience and commercial performance.

But brands generally grow by increasing penetration: getting more people to buy them.

That idea sits at the heart of Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow, and it has changed how I look at certain marketing decisions.

There is a temptation, particularly in membership organisations and sport, to concentrate almost entirely on the people who already care most. They are easiest to reach and most likely to engage with content. They comment, share and attend.

The danger is that the brand gradually starts speaking only to its own fan club.

Football is a perfect example. Your most committed supporter does not need to be reminded that the club exists. They may want team news and information, but if attendance growth is the objective, the bigger challenge is getting occasional supporters to attend one more match or persuading somebody with a weak relationship with the club to attend for the first time.

That changes the marketing.

An existing supporter may understand the league, players and fixture significance immediately. A lighter buyer may need practical information, a family proposition, an event around the fixture or simply a reminder that attending is an option.

Projects such as Matchday Teammates were interesting to me partly for that reason. Adding offers around the town creates value around the wider occasion and gives us more things to talk about than the football result itself.

The same thinking applies to gyms. Retention is incredibly important, but there is only so far a business can grow by persuading exactly the same members to remain members forever. At some point more people need to join.

None of this means ignoring your best customers. Treating loyal customers badly in the pursuit of acquisition would be ridiculous. But loyalty and acquisition are not opposites.

The broader lesson for me is that marketing needs to remain visible beyond the people already paying attention.

Reach matters.

Fame matters.

Availability matters.

And sometimes the customer who buys from you twice rather than twenty times is still commercially very important when there are thousands more people like them.