Marketers work hard every day to ensure that consumers use their brands. They work hard to fine-tune the product and the branding, ensuring it delivers exactly what consumers want, both functionally and emotionally. They invest in communications and media to ensure that the right messages are delivered to the right consumers to create the right image and desire to use the brand. Yet, time and again, the factor that limits consumption of brands most appears to be far simpler, far more mundane, and actually a shopper marketing challenge – whether or not the brand is available at the point of consumption.
This thought struck me last night as I got home from work, and decided on a beer. I’d had a long day, and on the journey home I’d visualized supping an ice cold glass of my favorite tipple. When I got home, I went to the fridge, but what did I find? Well there was beer – but not my preferred brand. So what did I do? Dash out of the house, down the road to buy my favorite beer brand? Of course not. I, like most other beer drinkers I know, drank what was available. All of the marketing efforts and investment in making me desire one brand over another, all wasted and lost at that last point; the brand wasn’t available to consume.
Availability at the point of consumption must be a priority
Note I’m talking here about availability at the point of consumption. Typically when we in the consumer goods industry talk of availability, we are talking about availability in-store. In this case I mean at the point of consumption – wherever (and whenever) the need to consume the brand could arise. Of course, it seems pretty obvious doesn’t it? It is, after all, rather difficult to consume something that isn’t there. And yet it appears to be a measure that is rarely considered by marketers, and rarely measured, which suggests that whilst it is obvious, it isn’t being focused on. In tracking studies, U&A’s (usage and attitude studies) brand plans, KPI dashboards and performance reports: rarely does the concept of availability at the point of consumption get a mention. I once shared this in a presentation, and someone raised a hand thinking my slide had an error in it – the concept was such a foreign one.
Category after category, availability at the point of consumption limits usage or either the category or the brand. Many people would like to clean their teeth during the day; too often a toothbrush and toothpaste aren’t there in the office, or in the car, or wherever the consumer is. Consumers run out of stock at home, or only stock at home, making it difficult to use the product anywhere else. And the cost of this is huge. Missed consumption occasions are rarely made up. If I drink a cola every day, but at some point I run out of stock at home, I don’t decide to drink two cans the next day. That consumption is lost, perhaps forever.
Creating availability to consume is the purpose of shopper marketing
And what creates availability to consume? Shopping of course. Creating availability to consume is, in one way, the purpose of shopper marketing. If the brand isn’t available, then the shopper marketer really hasn’t done her job. Understanding availability to consume is therefore critical to both consumer and shopper marketers – it is arguably the point where shopper and consumer marketing efforts meet.
So if this is so critical, and yet so often ignored, what should consumer and shopper marketers do to make progress in understanding whether their brand is available to consume, and what can be done to ensure constant availability at the right points?
Check each other’s data
Just to be on the safe side, first make sure that there is no information buried in reports in either department. Just possibly availability at the point of consumption may have been asked in a U&A, or covered in home visit style research. Or when conducting shopper research, the “reason for buying today” may give some indication as to the number of shoppers who buy when they run out of product. Whilst this might not give an exact answer, it should at least give an indication. And, whilst consumer and shopper marketers are sharing data, we might be able learn a load of other stuff too!
Build the question in to future research studies
Make a note, now. Please. Don’t wait eighteen months until you next commission a study – do it now. Go back to last year’s brief (which I know you’ll use for the next study, most people do!) and add in key questions about availability at the various points of consumption. Otherwise you’ll forget, or will have moved on to a bigger and better job, and it will be forgotten.
Build it into your dashboards and reports
If your brand relies on availability to drive consumption then start measuring it now. Build it into any tracking you might have, and start recording it and reporting on it. Even if you don’t have data, put it into your reports and dashboards – it will remind you that you have a data gap.
When you do get data, sense check everything else against it
Believe me, when you start getting data on what actually happens at the point of consumption, it can have a profound impact on everything you think about your brand. You may feel that you have high levels of loyalty – indeed your data might support this – and that might make you feel secure. But when you see data that consumers will switch to another brand, or even another category if yours isn’t there, it can be humbling! Think of it this way. This is the ultimate test of loyalty. Loyalty is “a brand I would never not have when I need it”. How about that for a new marketing benchmark!
It’s a simple concept, often overlooked. Of course it doesn’t apply to every category; but many consumer goods brands and categories are losing sales not because the brands aren’t great, or consumers haven’t had a great experience of the brand thus far (be it marketing, word of mouth, or actual usage): but merely because the brand wasn’t there when it was needed. If you’d like to know more about how availability at the point of consumption can drive better and more integrated consumer and shopper marketing, contact me.
Image: Flickr user Global X
