How brands grow for startups and SMEs.

I was having a conversation with a new client last week who runs a small-to-medium-sized business with big ambitions, and I got to talking about one of my favourite marketing books, Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow.

Most who see this will know it. It's been around a while now.

I'd told them about my experience in London, in global roles, and here in NZ working with some of the world's and New Zealand's biggest brands and their talented marketers and agency partners, and how we had put the principles in Byron's book to very good use, so their response wasn't a surprise.

"I'm sure that, like most business books, it focuses on big, world-leading brands, like your past clients, so those principles won't apply to my business".

This is a fair and perfectly understandable response, as the annual marketing budgets of some of my previous clients would have produced a dream five-year revenue for them.

They found my response interesting and helpful, creating some actions.

So, I thought I would share this to help more people who own, work at, or are involved in a startup or SME.

My response wasn't quite as succinct as this slide deck. It involved rambling, many hand gestures, some expletives, and the odd example, which I'll save you from.

If you need any help with this, please don't hesitate to let me know.

If you haven't read Byron's book, I recommend it.