Byron Sharp

Who they are: Byron Sharp is Professor of Marketing Science and Director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, and the author of How Brands Grow (Oxford University Press, 2010). His research looks at buyer behaviour, brand performance and advertising effectiveness.

The concept HaELM draws from: Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute argue that brands grow by being easy to notice and easy to recall, and that owned cues such as a colour, logo, shape or character help people recognise a brand quickly. These cues are called distinctive brand assets. Decode uses the idea to separate two things an ad can do: stand out from its surroundings, and point that attention back to one brand.

Decode articles where their thinking appears: Ramp Made Receipts Funny. I Saw It on My Way Out of O’Hare.

Source: Adelaide University people directory, “Prof Byron Sharp”; Sharp (2010), How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know (Oxford University Press).