Introduction
What does it take to grow a brand? How to avoid its decline? Some popular answers to these questions can be found in the research by Byron Sharp and others from the Ehrenberg-Bass (EB) Institute on "how brands grow." Formalized in two milestone books (Romaniuk & Sharp, 2015; Sharp, 2010), the EB approach had the merit of restoring focus on consumer acquisition as a key driver of brand growth, based on some established, predictable patterns of shopper behavior. It gained momentum across companies as it offers an evidence-based view of marketing that differs from the paradigm of consumer relationship...