Do Small Brands Follow the Law of Double Jeopardy?
Small brands are weird. How weird are they?
In the kombucha category, f’rinstance, big brands like GT’s have higher penetration AND higher ‘loyalty’.
This is the Law of Double Jeopardy. It’s an empirical regularity, with nice equations that predict it quite, uh, nicely.
Do platforms “own” their users?
TL;DR: Nope.
As a sequel to last week’s post (Do brands “own” their buyers?), here’s another set of cross-usage data. This time for social media.
We like to think we “own” our users. Or that “our” users are totes not like “their” users. Pinterest vs LinkedIn. Facebook vs Snapchat.
But it’s more complex than that.
Do we “own” our customers?
We often like to think we “own” our customers.
That “our” buyers are totes not like “their” buyers.
Coke vs Pepsi. Coach vs Chanel. Home Depot vs Lowe's.
But it mostly ain’t so.
Are you dead-set on refreshing your brand?
If you’re doing a brand refresh, there’s one key rule: if you have any equity in your brand, don’t throw it away.
Pleeeeeease.
Instead, build on what’s already in people’s minds.
Are you tracking trends for long enough?
Covid changed everything. Except when it didn’t.
F’rinstance, weekly new business applications in the US are now up 40% vs pre-pandemic. And that number doesn’t look like it’s going back down.
What helps new brands grow the most?
Launching a new brand is harrrd. And most new brands fail.
But of all the things you can do, what drives growth the most?
Ataman, Mela, and van Heerde dissected how the 4 P’s of the Marketing Mix impact brand launches (not line extensions).
Do people know about your cause marketing program?
All 87 of these popular brands DO have cause marketing programs. Some are long, well-established programs & campaigns.
But DoSomething Strategic polled 1,900 people aged 13-25 & found out that most of The Kids — don’t forget, “they buy based on values!” — have no clue.
Why do People Forget About Your Brand?
This is essentially the first Law of Brand Science: you’re trying to get people to buy your brand, and the first hurdle is, they can’t even remember where they put their keys, much less remember your brand.
How Much Do B2B Buyers Really Shop Around?
To find out, Bain & Company surveyed over 1,200 people at US companies who help procure hardware, software, logistics, equipment, cloud services, marketing, etc.
Turns out, 80-90% of them already have a clear set of brands in mind before they even start shopping.
And 90% of them pick a brand from that initial consideration set. (That’s like 70-80% of all B2B buyers.) Yowza!
Should you use ROI to measure your advertising?
(Especially don’t trust in-platform measures of ROI. They’re incomplete, speculative, and, well, designed to make the platform look good.)
To boot, 99% of your future buyers are building consideration sets in their minds today for purchases they’ll make next [week month year].
So maybe use ROI to measure ad efficiency.
What are the odds your small business will survive?
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has data for 19MM small companies born over the past 30 years.
About half make it past their 5th birthday. And 1 in 5 make it to legal drinking age (21).
But “survival of the fittest” applies too: the odds of living for another year hit 90% after 4 years, and plateau at around 95.5% after 17 yrs.
Is first-mover advantage a law of brand science?
is it even a real thing?
But second, is it a scientific law (as some assert)?
Lots of data suggest it’s… complicated.
How much should you fear brand haters?
9% of the time, haters aren’t your biggest issue.
The good folks at @CivicScience surveyed over 27,000 people about their opinions of Dick’s Sporting Goods and R.E.I. (the 2nd and 11th largest sporting goods retailers — in the world).
It turns out, haters are usually dwarfed by the indifferent: people who have no opinion or never heard of you.
Are you “controlling for size” in your brand studies?
You do a brand tracker or a U&A. You ask people how the brands rate on all the category attributes: “good for my family”, “trustworthy”, “healthy”, etc.
You find out that 2 brands are about tied, and the third brand (in orange here) has lower scores across the board.
Do you freak out and think, “Oh man! Orange is a weak brand!” Nope.
What’s the most distinctive brand asset of all?
Ipsos and Jones Knowles Ritchie did a big ol’ global study to find out. 25 countries. 33 categories. 523 brands. 5,000 brand assets. And 26,000 people.
The core question: did LOTS of people connect the thing to the RIGHT brand?
Then they sliced them into three tiers: gold, silver & bronze.
What are Your Assumptions About Consumers?
What are your biases and beliefs? Because those are probably your blind spots in understanding how consumers really think and shop and buy.
Are There Any Niche Brands with Crazy Loyalty?
I mean, we hear about it all the time. There’s a pervasive story, a broad belief — dare I say an archetype — of the small, niche brand with the super-loyal customers.
It seems to be extra extra pervasive in the natural foods world. Not sure why. Maybe because health nuts are also supposed to be brand nuts?
But there’s a problem with the story: the data don’t back it up.
Does 80% of Your Revenue Really Come From 20% of Your Customers?
The latest batch comes from over 330 publicly-traded non-CPG firms, for both product & services, care of scholars Daniel McCarthy at Emory & Russell Winer at NYU.
Do they find an 80/20 pareto ratio of revenue? Not quite.
For non-subscription firms, they find a 68/20 ratio on average. For subscription-type firms, the average is nearly 10% lower, at 59/20.
Are People Actually Brand "Loyal"?
Bain & Co got some panel purchase data from Kantar in the UK. It covered everything from beer to clothes to hotels to jewellery.
And in every category, most people bought from a “repertoire” of brands over the year or so, not just their favorite. You know: a little Cadbury chocolate, but also some Dove, and maybe some Tony’s too. A Coach clutch,but a Burberry one too.