Everyday consumer goods
FMCG marketing
Shoppers do not choose your product at the shelf. They take what they have already heard of, if they see it in time. So we work on two things at once: the brand coming to mind at the moment of need, and the product being where the hand reaches.
When the sale happens in someone else's shop, the question is what can be measured at all. You have two different customers: the chain deciding whether to list you, and the person at the shelf. The website has to speak to both.
Where the sale is lost, before and after the shelf
The product is in the shop, but nobody asks for it by name
When the brand does not come to mind, the shopper takes the pack next to it. Recognition is not vanity, it is the condition for being found in seconds.
Shelf space is decided once or twice a year
The category review has a date. Anyone who joins the conversation after it waits for the next season.
The promotion lifts volume and lowers the price of everything
Sales rise while the discount lasts, and then the shopper waits for the next one. That teaches a price, not a brand.
The campaign is judged by clicks while the sale is in someone else's till
There is no order to trace. So other things are measured: recognition, searches by name, and availability by location.
The chain's own label is waiting on the side
When your brand gives no reason to be asked for, its place is easily taken by a cheaper equivalent.
What changes in the order of work for FMCG
The purchase takes seconds and happens in someone else's store, so advertising cannot be judged by clicks. This is how that changes the steps of the way we work.
Goal
The goal is set in two parts: how many people should know the brand, and where the product should be on sale. Neither on its own produces growth.
Check
We establish what can be measured without a till of your own: searches for the brand name, availability by location, traffic to the stockist page, and whatever data the chain shares.
Channels
Video and social keep the brand in the shopper's head, advertising around the shop brings it back at the moment of purchase, and the stockist page closes the path. A promotion is a tool, not a strategy.
Report
Reporting compares periods with and without a campaign and follows recognition, searches by name and availability. A lift after a campaign is also checked against new listings, because those raise sales too.
The services that matter for FMCG
Two customers, and what convinces each of them
In everyday goods, marketing does not end with a sale on the website. The work is to get listed, and then to be asked for often enough to stay listed.
There are also rules that decide what may be written at all. Nutrition and health claims may only be used if they are authorised and entered in the European register, and where you state an origin it must also be clear where the primary ingredient comes from. Separately, dealings with the chains have their own limits: charges for promotion, for shelf space or for storage are permitted only under a clear prior written agreement, and payments for things unrelated to your own product are not allowed.
- The shopper at the shelf: Decides in seconds and recognises colour, shape and name. So the pack and the advertising have to speak the same language.
- The shopper who plans: Writes a list at home or orders online. Here the brand that comes to mind before the shop wins, not the one with the larger discount.
- The retail chain: Looks at turnover per metre of shelf and at risk. It wants category data, reliable delivery and certification before price is even discussed.
- The distributor: Sells you coverage of shops you cannot reach yourself. What interests them is whether the stock moves, not the advertising message.
- The independent shop: Orders what its customers already ask for. It is a consequence of the advertising, not a substitute for it.
- The chain's own label: The permanent competitor on the shelf. The defence is being asked for by name, not cutting the price.
- The where-to-buy page: The one part of the path to purchase you control. It turns advertising into a specific shop and a specific basket.
Related sectors with online and in-store purchase
Customers buy online
How we work when the purchase decision starts on a screen.
Retail
When you sell in your own stores.
E-commerce
When you sell directly through your own site.