Purchase availability is about trying to catch as many as possible of those who are falling. Ideally you want to catch more than your fair share (i.e more than your current overall market share).

There are categories that many consumers buy only a few times in their lifetime e.g. solar panels, prestige Champagne. Even if a brand announced a half price sale hardly anyone would listen and if they did they wouldn’t react. If you aren’t in the market for a washing machine it would take an extraordinary ‘activation’ to make you buy one – and such an activation is unlikely to be a profitable for the brand owner. But at any time a few people are planning to buy and so are suddenly interested in clothes dryers, headphones, life insurance, management consulting etc. These sorts of categories favour advertising that says things that appeal to people who are just about to buy, like “cashmere sale today”. Even pure temporary salience raising (“fresh fish sold here”) works. The key is to communicate “here is what you are looking for”. Naturally, “aren’t you lucky, today the price is discounted” is also appealing. The objective is to stop the consumer searching any further.

‘Search categories’ are similar (to where buyers ignore the category until they want to buy). With the added benefit that buyers sometimes identify themselves, e.g. by doing online search, so they can be targeted (e.g. with paid search). In a high search category it makes sense to focus on those who are about to buy, and spend much of our budget on physical and online availability e.g. in-store and paid search. And, again, the activation message should give buyers a reason to stop searching and buy the brand now e.g. “available today” or “20% off today”.

On-screen and in-store activity, like having a special display, or a discount sticker is purchase availability. It’s easy to see the immediate sales results of such spending, because all of your spend is going on people who are about to buy. Indeed, if you turn off this promotion your sales will drop noticeably. So, because consumers are buying every week, all year round, “activation/performance marketing” needs to be always on.

Because sales effects are immediate it is possible to identify the point where spending extra delivers little return. For example, when buying more search & display on Amazon yields little result, or the point where paying for an extra facing in Walmart yields few extra sales. This makes working out the right amount to spend on “activation” perfectly possible, and the amount is entirely independent of what is spent on advertising, hence the pointlessness of setting a ratio between the spends.

It means that ROI/ROAS are appropriate measures of purchase availability. But they are not appropriate for advertising to maintain/build mental availability.

Memories matter

A word of caution. Research shows that less search happens than marketers expect. Of course, everyone searches sometimes, but when we look at the whole market it is remarkable how few purchases are preceded by extensive search, even in “high involvement” categories like B2B, financial services, luxury, and expensive durables. This opens up an opportunity for your brand to benefit from advertising that reaches all, or at least many, potential buyers to build mental availability. Brand memories can linger a long time (influencing the purchases of many people over long periods). Some of the Institute’s research demonstrates that brand memories affect buying for decades.

Buyers can avoid a great deal of (annoying, time consuming) search and contemplation when they feel they can rely on their memories. Shoppers satisfice, even in today’s information rich world.

Memories don’t just influence what brands buyers recall, memories also direct what they notice on shelf, on screen, on the high street. So advertising can achieve a great deal by building the mental availability of the brand amongst the vast population of buyers, most of whom are not “in the market” right now.

When consumers know of one or a few brands…when they are confident that they can get what they want from within this group of brands, they are far less inclined to search. This makes catching them with “activations” very difficult, unless you are in this group of known brands.

When someone goes to buy a car, or a drink, the fact that they only notice/consider a few brands, means that any brand’s sales depend very little on what share they win of those that consider them, but mostly on how many people think about them or notice them at all. Which means that advertising matters more than activation.

Currently, Apple and Samsung dominate the US smartphone market, with a combined share of more than two thirds of all US smartphone owners, and both these brands enjoy a repeat purchase rate of around 85%. So obviously, many repeat buyers are making a choice between models of their brand, not between brands. So activation, trying to catch buyers who are about to upgrade their phone, is worthwhile for retailers but very little for Apple and Samsung themselves.

How to reach (the brains of) people who aren’t interested

Where there isn’t much search there is potentially great reward in advertising to people who aren’t currently in the market. But also great difficulty. Some categories are more interesting for more of the time (ice cream is more fun than health insurance), and some categories are bought more often so consumers are seldom entirely “out of the market”. This makes it easier for advertising to refresh brand memories. But for others it is extremely difficult, which is why it’s appropriate for some advertisers (e.g. the Persian rug store example) to focus near entirely on catching buyers who are about to buy.

So is there any point advertising in categories like cars, computers, or home loans where it’s difficult to reach the brains of people not in the market? The answer is yes, because even in these categories consumers don’t consider many brands when they go to buy. So again, a brand’s sales depend far less on what share it wins of those that consider it, and far more on how many people think about it or notice it at all.

This means that there can be great rewards for the few brands that do build mental availability in these infrequently bought categories. Currently Apple does rather well at this, helped by good looking products, a reputation for producing exciting new things, so that Apple gets considerable free publicity. This is in contrast to many other consumer durables brands that we rarely notice (what brand is your fridge? And the one at work?).

Some of the advertising exposures we buy hit consumers just after they bought our brand. It’s easy to regret these, and see them as wastage, but they actually have an important role to play. Humans are naturally brand loyal, but to be loyal we have to remember which brands are ‘ours’. Immediately post-purchase consumers’ brains are primed to see our brand, so our advertising is stronger at building their mental availability. This is another reason why advertising needs to be spread out over time, not wasted by bunching.

The key to remember is that people who aren’t currently in the market are different (from those who are). They really aren’t very interested in a low interest rate, a faster processor, or most other product features. This is why advertising needs to be creative, entertaining, worth watching many times. Quality creativity can still break through and reach brains of buyers who are about to buy.

It’s also essential to be very simple, clear, well branded. Consistent use of the brand’s distinctive assets over decades, not months, matters. It is why non-persuasive advertising (i.e. creative messages that do not even try to motivate buyers to think the brand is a better by than others) can still be very effective at building marketshare.

Contrary to the assertion of Ries & Trout (where they have  argued in favour of being known for one thing and against brand extension), there is also benefit of a brand covering a wide range of products, which is why we see this in home appliances (e.g. Samsung, Miele, LG, all offer fridges to televisions to vacuum cleaners). It might be many years before you buy a fridge again, but you are likely to buy another home durable. Advertising post-purchase is also important to remind you that your refrigerator is a Whirlpool for when you do eventually buy again.

Leaving all exposures to the last minute is a risk

For marketers who haven’t the confidence/evidence to justify advertising, the temptation is to spend only on those who are ‘in the market’ this week/month.

But reaching these people isn’t as easy as it sounds. Paid search, paying for prominence on comparison websites, and in-store displays are obvious ways of reaching people who are in the market, but all your rivals want this ‘shelf-space’ too which makes over-paying for it a real risk. Just like in-store, the on-line search environment is cluttered, so not all buyers will notice the activation. There is still the eternal marketing challenge of doing it right, online and in-store, to be seen by as many as possible.

When people go to buy a car they, on average, only look at two brands (Lapersonne et al, 1995). The figures are similar for buying major financial services like a mortgage (Dawes et al 2009). It is remarkable how little search occurs, and how few brands are looked at, by most buyers. So advertising to those who are about to purchase has to be done well, even though they are much more interested in the category (than others who won’t buy for quite a while) it’s still hard to reach their memories…. and you don’t have long. It is also easier for these people to notice your activations if they have seen you over recent years. Leaving all exposures to the last minute is a risk.

Future reports:
How to assess purchase availability efforts.
How to set budgets for mental availability.