Marketing runs on comfort blankets. The Sharp Cut cuts them up to see what's inside. This week: brand love.

Start with motorcycles. In 2015, the happiest owners in the entire category rode Victory, ahead of Harley. Two years later, Polaris shut Victory down. The happiest customers in the category could not keep the brand alive. That should bother anyone who spent a career being told marketing's job is to make people love you.

So Marc and V take the believers at their word and run three tests on lovemarks, raving fans, and brand love. Are the most loved brands the biggest? Are they growing the fastest? Does the love come first, before the buying? The evidence, from the ACSI to double jeopardy to ten years of Ehrenberg-Bass data, keeps pointing the same way.

Then they own up to it. Marc's Heinz loyalty that is really just shelf placement. V's Golf Town thank-you notes, where every bit of love showed up after the money was already in the books.

The conclusion is not that love is worthless. It protects you, and losing it hurts. It just is not what grows a brand. Plus what to do with all of this on Monday.

Chapters

00:00 What the Sharp Cut is

00:45 Today's comfort blanket: brand love

00:50 Victory vs Harley: the happiest owners, gone in two years

02:36 Where the idea came from

05:43 The money angle, and the JC Penney lovemark

06:28 The case for love, taken seriously

08:33 Three tests for the believers

08:59 Test 1: are the most loved brands the biggest?

10:20 Double jeopardy, and why loyalty is everywhere

12:04 The Apple challenge

12:45 Test 2: do loved brands grow the fastest?

15:12 Test 3: does love come first?

18:17 Confessions: Heinz, Matouk's, and the Golf Town tees

22:04 So is love a moat? The Kroger debate

24:14 Do people even want a relationship with a brand?

26:31 What to do Monday