Short term vs long term
Every experienced marketer recognises the problem: you know that brands grow over the long term, but all too often your efforts are diverted into delivering the next quarter's budget.
And most of the data easily available – whether it's sales, searches or clicks – focuses your attention on what's happening now.
The reality is that sustained, long-term growth is rare.
Fewer than 6% of brands grow market share over the first year. 6 in 10 of these brands sustain their gain over three years. 1 in 10 further improve on their initial gain.
So how can you future-proof your brand?
Three key drivers of sustainable growth
To understand what drives sustainable growth, we've analysed the performance of 3,900+ brands from our BrandZ™ global brand equity database, across 58 categories and 21 countries.
Getting the balance on investment right across three areas of marketing activity is critical to your brand success.
![Growth across areas of marketing activity](/north-america/-/media/project/kantar/global/articles/images/2019/mastering-momentum/flywheel.png?h=719&w=736&hash=B35A5D7457582EBBD15EBB7E5A739340)
Activity at each point needs to work in synergy with the others to build sales momentum, and maximise your growth potential by up to 46%.
Size matters
Building sales momentum is a very different task whether you're a small brand or a big brand. Small brands have to focus on acquiring users from competitors, while big brands need to drive additional purchases from existing customers.
![% growth achieved](/north-america/-/media/project/kantar/global/articles/images/2019/mastering-momentum/source-of-growth.png?h=532&w=736&hash=1E835D71B3612F414E85D02DE2CF59CA)
Brands that adopt a growth strategy appropriate for their size grow 45% faster than those that only grow penetration.