Why Reach Matters

Brands grow by reaching more people, not by making current customers buy more often. This evidence-based finding—documented by Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute across thousands of brands—challenges marketing's most persistent myth about deepening customer loyalty and maximizing lifetime value.

Market leaders win through penetration, not superior loyalty. Light buyers who purchase infrequently represent the vast majority of growth opportunity, yet they're systematically undervalued in favor of heavy-user strategies that deliver diminishing returns. Since light buyers have low mental availability—they simply don't think about your brand often—building reach becomes the essential growth driver.

Television remains uniquely capable of building broad reach quickly and cost-effectively. Audience-based linear strategies employ granular data to identify where precisely-defined targets can be reached efficiently—often discovering 20-30% more reach per dollar through strategic long-tail network deployment. Smart marketers build 50-70% reach through audience-targeted linear TV first, then layer CTV strategically to complete coverage.

In this paper, you'll learn how science-based tools make every marketing dollar work harder—because penetration, not loyalty, drives growth.