A rising tide lifts all boats: the role of share and category changes in managing organic sales growth

The strategic objective of marketing activities is to drive business growth by promoting the firm’s products. Beyond merger and acquisition, organic growth can be targeted from two sources: Market Share Gain and Category Growth. Market share is often the focus for corporate objectives and used as a success measure. This research explores the relative impact of these two elements on firm growth across product category and addresses whether market share should be the main focus for all organisations. The study covers 39 consumer packaged goods’ categories from the UK and US, across 189 manufacturers over three to five years of data, post-2010. We show that firm growth through market share gain is likely to benefit small firms, and large firms’ growth is likely to be driven by category growth. The results provide empirical support in the area of business growth and how marketing plays a crucial role in this pursuit.