Sometimes we see brands have a low Market Share in Retail Audit, but score significantly higher on Brand Awareness and Equity in Brand Health Trackers. This often leads to confusion, and doubts on the accuracy of the data.

However, in some cases, this may actually be reflective of the truth and any FMCG brand manager who notices this insight should note that her / his brand can gain share in the short-term if supported with targeted marketing campaigns.

But first, why does this happen …

Suppose there is a brand operating in Air Fresheners which has a retail audit market share of 5%. But its brand awareness scores, when compared to other brands with similar retail audit shares, is the highest. And when looking at the brand imagery (i.e. to derive equity) the ratings are also higher vis-à-vis the immediate competitive set. So why is it getting better scores?

It could be that this brand recently carried out ATL / BTL activities, or had a new launch, etc. which can justify a short-term peak. But when this is seen consistently in a tracker, these cannot be the reason.

Here is where the Halo Effect comes into play. It is possible that this brand also plays in the Insecticides and Floor Cleaners categories where it is the market leader with historical dominance. One of the reasons as to why this brand gets higher than expected scores in the Air Fresheners category could be the positive rub-offs from the other 2 categories. Which indicates that there may be a potential to grow.

But then comes the question of how to gain share. Here we need to ask how many consumers are buying our brand across all 3 categories and whether this familiarity / entrenchment is what is causing the higher scores. And then compare vs. other consumers who are buying our brand in Insecticides and Floor Cleaners but NOT Air Fresheners. If we are able to prove a consistent lead amongst the more entrenched buyers (not just in imagery but also in terms of brand switch, promo-hunting tendencies, seasonality preferences, etc.) then we may be able to “piggy-back” and gain share in Air Fresheners.

We also need to ask whether these 3 categories are bought in the same shopping trip / whether they are bought from the same type of stores (brick and mortar as well as online) / whether there is a pack size preference / whether there is a demographic skew, etc. And critically we need to benchmark vs. the category leader in Air Fresheners to set realistic expectations. The more similarities we find, the more targeted our campaigns can be.

The campaigns must try showcase the advantage of the brand’s overall equity, thereby asking current non buyers of Air Fresheners to add it to their Grocery Basket.

If you found this interesting, please do reach out to us to see how we can help you drive data driven business growth.