Morning!
In marketing there are only two questions that matter in the long run:
How many buyers do you have?
How often do they buy your brand?
The product of your market share and purchase frequency is your sales revenue, bonuses, promotions, and accolades.
There’s a cost to ignoring this.
Out of the many marketing laws introduced in How Brands Grow, this one is my favourite:
The Law of Double Jeopardy says that brands with a small market share remain small (first jeopardy), and as a result, they get bought less often (second jeopardy)
Meaning: Brands grow through acquiring new customers and shrink when they fail at it.
Because we’re repertoire buyers and switch between brands in a category instead of being 100% loyal to just one brand.
And there’s a frequency cap on how often we buy from a category.
Can you remember the last time you bought 5 extra shampoo bottles because you just loved the brand so damn much?
Yeah, neither do I.
People split their purchases across options that they know of and can access.
And that’s just as true for online marketing as it’s offline.
I loved this short and punchy article by Dr Grace Kite, where she explains that even though small brands are visible alongside their large competitors online, the effects of double jeopardy still apply:
The pendulum has had two swings: Starting in the 1990s, the internet made it easier for start-up businesses to make their products available, market them, and grow. But since then, the direction of travel is increasingly in the opposite direction. With ever growing advantage for the big players.
The reason is that algorithms are mediating ever more purchases and they prioritise things that are already popular. That means businesses that are already big. Smaller businesses are served up less often, pay more for their online ads, and have to devote more cash to defending their existing sales.
Your brand growth depends on how many new customers you reach and convince.
With that settled, let’s talk about how you can do that.
Target your category: Your brand needs to reach and win over a large volume of medium and light consumers. And since these customers hop between brands, you need to reach them quarter after quarter, and year after year.
Be consistent: Brand hopping isn’t limited to light users. Albeit infrequently, heavy users do it too. A long interval between purchases is typical across most categories. That’s why maintaining the same mental availability is essential to repeat purchases.
Stay curious!
Aliyar