Call To Action 168: Professor Byron Sharp on a lifetime of learning in the marketing world
Aug 15, 2025
53:28
This week we tucked in our shirt, straightened our tie and resisted the temptation to nip off for a quick vape behind the pickle-ball court, all in order to suitably impress our guest, one of the world’s greatest marketing academics, Professor Byron Sharp.
A man who would need no introduction (if we weren’t contractually obliged to provide all our pod guests with one) Prof Byron is one of the world’s most respected thinkers in the field of brands and consumer behaviour.
Unless you’re deliberately trying to get yourself fired from your marketing role, you’ll no doubt have read his seminal book ‘How Brands Grow’ and, if you’re especially lucky, you may well have learned directly from the man himself in one of his globally prestigious academic roles.
A speaker, a teacher, a thinker and a pioneering researcher, Byron still has the time to be a thoroughly entertaining podcast guest, and is famously happy to share the kind of knee-buckling market truth that the industry fears but also really, really needs.
In an episode where Byron jabs a scholarly finger into the flabby thinking that holds brands back, we ponder the many different disciplines a proper marketer should be able to wrap their heads around if they want a consumer to care.
This episode is proudly dedicated to John Scriven.
Follow Byron on LinkedIn
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Timestamps
03:27 - Early Jobs and Academia
04:38 - The Importance of Real-World Experience
06:09 - Working with Andrew Ehrenberg
08:28 - The Intent Behind "How Brands Grow"
09:41 - Marketing Blind Spots and Unexplored Areas
10:30 - Cognitive Biases and Behavioral Science
11:48 - The Role of Heuristics in Consumer Behavior
12:43 - Understanding Double Jeopardy Law
14:08 - Consumer Efficiency vs. Laziness
15:26 - Predictive Power of Marketing Science
16:06 - The Weirdness of the Real World
17:37 - Misconceptions About Marketing Science
19:40 - The Role of Synthetic Research
32:58 - B2B Marketing and Growth Strategies
35:22 - The Value of Awards in Marketing
Byron's Book recommendations are:
The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig
Everything is Obvious by Duncan Watts
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
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A man who would need no introduction (if we weren’t contractually obliged to provide all our pod guests with one) Prof Byron is one of the world’s most respected thinkers in the field of brands and consumer behaviour.
Unless you’re deliberately trying to get yourself fired from your marketing role, you’ll no doubt have read his seminal book ‘How Brands Grow’ and, if you’re especially lucky, you may well have learned directly from the man himself in one of his globally prestigious academic roles.
A speaker, a teacher, a thinker and a pioneering researcher, Byron still has the time to be a thoroughly entertaining podcast guest, and is famously happy to share the kind of knee-buckling market truth that the industry fears but also really, really needs.
In an episode where Byron jabs a scholarly finger into the flabby thinking that holds brands back, we ponder the many different disciplines a proper marketer should be able to wrap their heads around if they want a consumer to care.
This episode is proudly dedicated to John Scriven.
Follow Byron on LinkedIn
/////
Timestamps
03:27 - Early Jobs and Academia
04:38 - The Importance of Real-World Experience
06:09 - Working with Andrew Ehrenberg
08:28 - The Intent Behind "How Brands Grow"
09:41 - Marketing Blind Spots and Unexplored Areas
10:30 - Cognitive Biases and Behavioral Science
11:48 - The Role of Heuristics in Consumer Behavior
12:43 - Understanding Double Jeopardy Law
14:08 - Consumer Efficiency vs. Laziness
15:26 - Predictive Power of Marketing Science
16:06 - The Weirdness of the Real World
17:37 - Misconceptions About Marketing Science
19:40 - The Role of Synthetic Research
32:58 - B2B Marketing and Growth Strategies
35:22 - The Value of Awards in Marketing
Byron's Book recommendations are:
The Halo Effect by Phil Rosenzweig
Everything is Obvious by Duncan Watts
The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
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