The Growth Dilemma

You always want to grow your brand, but there''s a dilemma: The more customer segments you target and serve, the harder it becomes to manage their diverse preferences and behaviors. Sometimes, you do such a good job building a loyal customer base that attempts to attract other customers feels like a betrayal to your core audience. Other times, a new segment adopts your products without your courting, and it creates tension with existing customers in the form of disagreement over how the brand should be used, what it stands for, and who it should serve. In these instances, the growth of one customer segment within your brand threatens to drive away your current customers.

Welcome to "the conflict zone," where brands must navigate incompatibilities between customer segments to achieve growth, or risk losing more customers than they gain. How did Supreme''s attempts to crossover into fashion cost the brand its coveted reputation among skateboarders? How did Apple lose one of its most devoted customer bases when it updated a piece of software? What did Tiffany do when its silver jewelry became too popular with teenagers?

Marketing experts and professors Annie Wilson and Ryan Hamilton answer these questions, and through dozens more cases provide insight into how brands can drive growth by attracting new segments without alienating or losing their current customers. They also explore how brands can more strategically select and manage customer segments to drive high velocity growth and symbiotic segment relationships. With a fresh, simple framework for driving sustainable brand growth, Wilson and Hamilton introduce the novel, and essential discipline of Segment Relationship Management (SRM), to show you how to better manage your marketing mix for different customer segments, and to recognize when inviting a new customer segment into the fold might cause a riff.

Here you''ll find a better way to strategically select new target markets and evaluate, monitor, and manage multiple customer segments to acquire, retain, and delight customers. The Growth Dilemma is your roadmap to brand growth.

About the Authors

Annie Wilson is a Senior Lecturer of Marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She received a PhD in marketing from Harvard Business School. Wilson has consulted for companies in the financial, entertainment, beauty, and fashion industries and given numerous talks on both branding and marketing.

Ryan Hamilton is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. He received his PhD in marketing from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Hamilton has served as a consultant to Walmart, FedEx, Home Depot, Caterpillar, ConAgra, Cigna, Visa, and Ipsos, among others.