Summary

<aside> 💡 The goal of marketing should be to improve mental and physical availability of a product.

• Growth in market share comes from increasing popularity, gaining many more buyers, most of whom are light customers buying the brand only occasionally.
• Brands compete as near lookalikes and vary in popularity.
• Brand competition and growth are about building physical availability and mental availability.
• Advertising works largely by refreshing memory structures, not by convincing rational minds or winning emotional hearts.
• Growth is due to extraordinary acquisition; contraction is due to dismal acquisition.
• Mass marketing is essential for both brand maintenance and growth.
• All brands have many light buyers who buy the brand very occasionally. These light buyers, though infrequent, collectively contribute substantially to sales volume.
• A few buyers buy a category often and a few of these buy a category very often. These buyers are important because they deliver a lot of sales volume in spite of their small numbers. </aside>

Notes

The most important knowledge contained in this book (Location 105)

No marketing activity, including innovation, should be seen as a goal in itself, its goal is to hold on to or improve mental and physical availability. (Location 106)

1.Growth in market share comes by increasing popularity; that is, by gaining many more buyers (of all types), most of whom are light customers buying the brand only very occasionally. (Location 109)

2.Brands, even though they are usually slightly differentiated, mainly compete as if they are near lookalikes; though they vary in popularity (and hence market share). (Location 110)

3.Brand competition and growth is largely about building two market-based assets: physical availability and mental availability. Brands that are easier to buy – for more people, in more situations – have more market share. Innovation and differentiation (when they work) build market-based assets, which last after competitors copy the innovation. (Location 112)

Therefore, marketers need to improve the branding of their product (i.e. it needs to look like them and only them) and to continuously reach large audiences of light buyers cost effectively. Marketers need to research what their distinctive brand assets are (colours, logos, tone, fonts, etc.); they need to use and protect these. Managers also need to research how buyers buy their brand, when they think of and notice it, and how it fits into their lives (and shopping). Marketers need to manage media and distribution in line with this knowledge. (Location 115)

Advertising works largely by refreshing, and occasionally building, memory structures (and less by convincing rational minds or winning emotional hearts). Marketers need to research these memory structures and ensure that their advertising refreshes these structures by consistently using the brand's distinctive assets. (Location 119)

Chapter 1: Evidence-based Marketing (Location 221)