What marketing science tells us about how to grow brands

Actual brand growth depends less on building awareness and positive perceptions of your alcohol brand, and more on ensuring you are mentally and physically available across more buying situations by more consumers (Romanic & Sharp).

This requires a proper understanding of your Category Entry Points (CEPs) — usage situations made up of a combination of motivations (why we want something) and contexts (e.g., where, when, with whom, or why) – and knowing which are established and which are emerging.

You can then create brand associations by refreshing salience and building new memories so you’re the brand consumers choose to buy into as many Category Entry Points as possible.

Applying this to the alcohol category

80% of the UK population consumes alcohol at least occasionally, and over 60% of the US population. These figures have remained relatively unchanged over the last decade, although the category now includes lower and no alcohol varieties.

We asked people why and the context of how they consume alcohol among a sample of 1,500 consumers.  We then conducted a statistical analysis to develop 24 Category Entry Points (CEPs) that group into seven macro groups.

The figure below shows the market share of the CEP grouping, combination of

  • Penetration (participation in the CEP in the last three months)
  • Frequency (number of days per week)
  • And volume (units consumed each occasion)

The largest group of CEPs are based around Relaxation and “Me Time”, followed by Social gatherings and special occasions. While the latter is participated in by more people, those participating in the former do so more frequently hence its larger market share.

The macro-CEP map gives you a strategic view of the consumers’ minds and the opportunities brands must connect with them. Relaxation is the largest CEP by far, and while it is increasingly being explored by brands such as the the new Malibu campaign (https://youtu.be/6u92jq_JdFE?) many more brands are positioned around much smaller CEP’s such as excitement and party.  Each CEP can be divided into Micro CEP’s for further granularity. For example, within Relaxation, there are micro ceps of Watching TV, Chilling at Home and Indoor Activities.

CEP size differs by category as can be seen below, but there is also some continuity, for example, Relaxation is still the largest CEP for Wine, Spirits and Beer.

Applying this to your brand strategy

Understanding how your brand(s) currently perform across CEPS will be essential to ascertaining how you will plan your brand portfolio and make decisions for each brand.

When looking at CEP’s individually you could look to adopt the following strategies

  • Protecting or defending the biggest CEPS your brand(s) do best in.
  • Advancing in big CEPS an, where you need to pull ahead of the competition.
  • Take ownership of CEPS, which currently has no brand leader but is doing well in the subcategory. So an entry point is where people say they’d choose beer over wine, or spirits over beer, but no brand comes to mind.
  • Challenge in entry points where other subcategories dominate. For example, you might already be the most thought of beer, but wine is being thought of more. Can you push the subcategory further into that entry point as a brand leader?

Once you’ve cracked these and are looking for where to go next, you could think about pushing the size of a small entry point where you’re powerful. Mainly if it’s perhaps having a larger size in another geography, or if it’s an entry point that is trending upwards. Like Aperol Spritz, coming from Europe, the aperitif entry point is growing in the UK.

Finally, part of the strategy might be actively ignoring the smaller CEPS where your brand is weak and indistinct. The effort would be high, and the reward low.

With a portfolio of brands, you can understand which brands will target which entry points. The figure below shows a heat map for how three company brands fare across seven CEPS in terms of mental penetration. Certain brands have strengths in key areas, for example, Brand A in Excitement and Party and Social Moment, Brand B in Casual Meals, and Brand C in Relaxation at Home and Outside Events. It could be possible to understand which brand will target which CEP with this kind of map, though competitive brands will also be considered.

It is important to remember that Targeting CEPs doesn’t require changing your overall brand positioning—it simply provides greater flexibility in your communications strategy. For example, you may have a brand with a positioning around Party Vibes, but you discover that there is potential in Relaxation and “Me Time”. You could consider a complementary strategy for this CEP, perhaps targeting with Relaxation media or using a PR strategy, rather than adapting the brand positioning. Possibly a sub-variant of the brand could be particularly suited to different CEP. Successful brands can target a wide range of CEP rather than limiting themselves to one or two.

Measuring your brand’s mental availability across each entry point, along with the competitive pressure from other brands and subcategories, enables you to develop a clear and effective strategy for brand growth. You will be able to get accurate details of each CEP, including Mental Penetration, Consumption, and Brand Penetration, as well as information on the Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

In the Carefree and upbeat CEP, brands that are clean/crisp, aromatic, sweet and good for pacing do well.  It is a CEP that skews to younger males and under-35s. Consumer Trends that apply to the category include Generation Now – wanting immediate/fast access to goods, Brand Me – with a penchant for individualisation and consumers wanting access to experiences as much as goods.

 

Do you want more?

To learn more about our research and the findings relevant to your brand, please contact patrick@trajectorypartnership.com or chrisw@trajectorypartnership.com. We are experts in mental availability, having completed studies in several FMCG and retail categories across 20 markets, and previously partnered with UCL, winning key awards for work in the area (Media Week, MRG).