Professor Byron Sharp: Brands Will "Destroy Themselves" If They "Pointlessly Believe Rather Than Test"

Professor Byron Sharp believes the brands that will "destroy themselves" by 2050 will be those that believe in their marketing without evidence of success.

“Some brands will destroy themselves by optimising the wrong things, by pointlessly just believing things rather than testing," he said yesterday, speaking at Mailchimp's FWD conference in Sydney about the future of marketing.

"But the brands that won’t will be readily available to all sorts of buyers, they'll be interesting. They'll be easy to notice, even by people who don't care much about the category.”

The professor and author of 'How Brands Grow' set out 10 predictions about what marketing will look like in 2050, including that human behaviour will remain habitual, brands and marketing will continue to matter, loyalty will be predictable, and "trade markets will continue because they work".

“Most people care far more about being able to choose their brand than they care about who's actually running the country.”

Big brands will continue to gain customers, he said, and penetration will be key.

“Big brands will have lots of customers, otherwise they wouldn’t be big brands. 10 years ago, when the then CEO of Westpac said, ‘we don't need any more customers,’ I just read that and though, yeah, you do.”

He argued change will unsurprisingly continue to remain the only constant, adding, “Our grandparents could have said the same of this new radio stuff, or mass transport. They lived through a time of incredible change, so do we.”

Light buyers, who know and care little, will matter enormously to revenue and growth, he continued. Using breakfast cereal as an example, the professor said a person only has to buy a brand's product twice in a year to be in the top 50% of customers for that 12 month period. Customers that buy a brand's cereal once are just as important as those who buy frequently, he said.

Automation will continue, and "social media sweat shops" will disappear, he predicted.

"Someone who works in IKEA saying ‘we have to post something on social media again today about coffee tables, what did we write last time?’ – I think we'll automate that.”

He also focussed on personalisation, pointing out that people were promised shoes that would "fit perfectly" back in the 1940s – a gimmick that never came to fruition – and are similarly being promised “perfectly timely, relevant ads” today.

“We have this automated customer service. We don't even have smart traffic lights,” he joked.

The professor grounded his predictions for the future in lessons from the past: great creativity resonates with the whole market because "that's what builds the great brands of this world," brands shouldn't over-rely on personalisation or assume that targeted messages work better, and crafting too many messages dilutes brand recognition.

Looking ahead, those who aren't simply shaking a magic 8-ball for their marketing strategy – or "evidence-based marketers," as the professor referred to them – will still rely on current best-practice. 

This includes penetration, good branding and physical availability, refreshing and building memory structures, and the cycle of 'reach, remind, reach, remind.'

“Don't worry about sending them too many emails. Do worry about sending them interesting emails.”

His biggest prediction for both tomorrow and well into the future? Creativity will always matter.