Brands need to understand the metrics of reach — Experts
By Zion Rufus
Experts in Nigeria’s marketing communications space have asserted that for brands to grow, amongst other key imperatives, they have to better understand and execute the metrics of reach which includes building salience, penetration, top of mind awareness, and setting trends in the categories they operate.
In their submission during the MARKETING EDGE Fireside Conversation themed “Marketing and brand positioning in a digital age”, they agreed that the above assertion can only be achieved when brands immerse themselves in the changing lifestyles of their consumers, the evolution of their buying behaviors and changes in preferences, and investing in the functional attractiveness as well as emotional attractiveness of their offerings to the consumers.
“Marketing should not be static, because the consumers are not,” said Oti Ukubeyinje, VP Product marketing and Growth, Terragon.
“Consumers at different stages of their lives inspire to be better than where they were. So you have to pay attention to how these consumer lifestyles are changing and how to adapt your messages to suit them at each stage they shift to.”
According to the digital marketing guru, different brands have their own approach to reach especially FMCG brands whose products aren’t from the digital consumption category or solely based on digital interaction, it becomes a function of how to constantly reach people with their brand and message at least once per time, and constantly do it to drive salience, which will in turn translate to top of mind.
“That’s why sometimes brands will do crazy stuff just to increase the memorability, so that the next time they associate that action with that brand or that memory with that brand, when they are at a moment of choice to choose between one product or the other, the memory you have will help you shape your judgment. So If you have a good memory of the brand or interaction, you will most likely reach for the brand in your moment of choice. That is what you want to translate salience and top of mind awareness into. Top of mind awareness comes to play when consumers have choices, between similar products from different brands and then there is that,” Oti shared.
Validating the above information, Dolapo Otegbayi, a seasoned marketer and Specialized nutritions director at FrieslandCampina buttressed the importance of positioning in the metrics of reach.
She said: “First you need to understand your positioning. Positioning is how the consumers perceive your product or service relative to competition. And it is important that you fight, you strive to get that distinctiveness in the mind of consumers.”
“Profile and review your target market, where is your size of opportunity, who will deliver the highest return on investment. Taking COVID for instance, everything has become unusual to a new normal. Life in 2019 and life now, you’d see that a lot has changed, and who are the biggest part of these changes, the consumers, the people. The world is changing at a very fast pace, and It is the onus of the brands to evolve into the current realities of the consumers,” Otegbayi noted.
On his part, Sheriff Akinpelu who shared that the very first step was for brands to identify their objectives, also emphasized the need for brands to build penetration by increasing their mental and physical availability.
He explained: “Reach is divided into two, there is the physical reach which is physical availability and there is the mental one which is in your mind. Mental availability means that you build a memory structure that allows customers when they are in that space where they have to pick a product, yours comes first in their mind, and not only does it come first, it also compels them to reach for it amongst other choices. So first you understand your objectives, what you want to achieve, and when you know what you want to achieve, then you focus on lifestyle; how consumer behavior has changed over the years.”
Segun Ogunleye, General Manager at 7Up Bottling Company advised that brands should be trendsetters and not exist as a “me too”. The marketing strategist noted that the concept of having a target audience or a bulls eye is still very valid.”
“You cannot serve everyone,” Ogunleye said.
“As a business, do you have insight that is driving the intelligence of the strategy or you are running your business decisions as a “me too”? Have you really profiled the consumers you want to sell to? You have your primary audience. Find out who they are, and what their lifestyles are like. For instance it would be a huge marketing blunder to say because the other brands are on apps, you want to be on apps too. Do you have an in-depth understanding on the sustenance and life span of these apps? Are your target audience on these apps? And does the platform add the same value to your brands? For everytime we think that our consumers are standing at the same spot, we as brands are going backward. Consumption pattern changes from time to time.”
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