B2B marketer can also focus better on brand growth

The only way to grow your brand is to grow your customer base. Not by making your existing customers more loyal.

Some recent studies show a particular pattern. Where one study shows that 65% of B2B marketers say they prefer customer loyalty over attracting new customers to grow their brand. However, recent research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows once again that this is not the right strategy.

In growing the customer base, the retention of existing customers on the one hand and attracting new customers on the other have been considered for many years. This has led to a consensus among marketers that retaining existing customers is cheaper than attracting new customers. That consensus stems from a 1990 Harvard Business Review article written by Rechheld and Sasser. With that in mind, it goes without saying that the necessary time and attention is devoted to retaining these customers. This was also confirmed in a 2019 LinkedIn survey, where 65% of the surveyed marketers believe in increasing loyalty. However, this focus should not prevail over attracting new customers.

Why? The answer: the so-called 'double jeopardy law' . A law that originated in the 1960s and was confirmed by Andrew Ehrenberg. This marketing researcher, who died in 2010, was succeeded by Byron Sharp, and his work has also continued at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute. The well-known book How brands grow by Byron Sharp, recently named one of the must-read marketing books , stems from the various studies carried out by the institute. The first chapter in which a law/finding is shared calls this double jeopardy law.

Read the full article in MarketingFacts.