Going Back to Basics: Part 1

"It doesn't matter how loved your brand is... If your customers can't find you easily and in a format that is relevant to them, they will pick another option. Always remember, customers have a repertoire of brands in every category and so if you're hard-to-buy, they'd simply move to a brand that's easier to shop."

Over the next couple of articles, I'm going to share some tips on how to grow your brand by focusing on delivering great Physical Availability.

What is Physical Availability?

It refers to how easy it is for the shoppers (buyer, purchaser, customer, consumer, client or patron) of your category to find and buy your brand. This physical availability hinges on many factors and today, we'd be discussing the first of these factors which is Presence.

We will look at the idea of presence in a few ways... Quite simply, for your consumers to choose you, they must first know you exist which means they have to see you! They must see you in multiple places and the way you show up should be relevant to your shoppers.

I'd use an example to land this point - let's say you sell Oil. How will this play out practically for the oil you sell?

First, what type of oil do you stock? Do you only stock vegetable oil? Or do you stock Olive oil, Granola Oil, Sesame oil and other types of oil? This is called Range of products. You are increasing your range of products because you want to appeal to more consumers who use different types of the same products - which in this case is oil. However, before you play with your range, you need to carry out adequate research to ensure there is a market for the range you want to expand into. If you already carry a large range of products, you need to periodically optimise your range to ensure you are not stocking a number of slow-moving products that doesn't appeal to the market.

This idea of Range is why you see Toothpaste brands for example offering you Regular, Extra Peppermint, Whitening, Cavity Prevention, Smokers Edition and all other variations of toothpaste. They address the most common problems of their target audience with their range of products. So for Smokers, they won't want their teeth to darken and they want fresh breath... And voila! Product created! :)

If you're in the service industry, how does this idea of range affect you? What range of services are you offering? Some service providers have an offer for just about every type of service meanwhile, you actually only have a market for two services. On the flip side, some service providers are only offering one type of service, where they may be a complementary service you can offer alongside.

The second thing to consider is what is referred to as Formats! Let's go back to our oil example. There are different people who come to buy oil - you may have a bachelor who lives alone coming to buy oil, then there may be a mother of 5 kids also coming to buy oil, then you have a wife who just ran out of oil and is running to her neighbourhood supermarket to buy oil. The question to ask is: will these people all require the same size of oil? The answer is no! The bachelor may just want a small bottle of oil while the mother of 5 kids may want a huge bottle of oil and the wife may want just a medium-sized bottle of oil to take her till the end of the month when she does her bulk grocery shopping from the big markets (which is cheaper for her). For you to reach your different categories of consumers, you need to have different formats (also called Stock Keeping Units - SKUs) of your product.

How do you know what formats to delve into? Well, you need to get to know your customer well. Who are your target consumers? What are they shopping for (and we'd speak about this in detail later).

If you're in a service based business, this applies to you as well! What formats do you provide your services to your target audience? Do you have virtual or physical meetings for example? Or if you're a course creator, do you have a mix of videos and audio content and of varying lengths to appeal to different types of consumers? Think about it!

The final thing I'd share today is around Distribution. Where can your range of products be found and do you know which format of your product should be found in which channel? It doesn't matter how loved your brand is... If your target shoppers can't find you easily and in a format that is relevant to them, they will pick another option. Always remember, customers have a repertoire of brands in every category and so if you're playing hard-to-buy, they'd move to a brand that's easier to shop.

If you're in the service based business, this speaks to how your consumers can find you. Are you where your target consumers work and play? The social media channels that you decide to be on, for example, should be a reflection of where your target consumers are.

In summary, having great Presence is the first step to growing your brand sustainably.

Action Points:

-- Review and optimise your range of products and services: Do they appeal to the needs of your target consumers?

-- Review your formats (SKUs): Do you have enough variety to appeal to the occasions your target consumers use your product or service for?

-- Have a distribution plan to ensure that you are everywhere your target consumer is and you are easy to shop.

I hope this was helpful to you.

Until next time,

B.T