Omni
The hottest word in CPG right now is omnichannel.
As long-time readers of this newsletter know, we’re fans of distribution. We have, in fact, gone so far as to state that DTC is a more inconvenient channel than most would like to admit.
Getting into retail, selling on marketplaces, striking deals that help you reach your customers in more accessible, more convenient channels is a salve to that. We’re fans.
Except we’re struggling with one thing: many brands starting this journey to ubiquity through distribution are not yet trying to reach ubiquity through awareness. The marketing dollars are going to demand capture. Facebook ads are used to capture DTC sales, sampling is used to capture retail sales, etc.
There seems to be less mass reach efforts, even as many in the space are talking about reaching the masses.
While collapsing the funnel and driving bottom of funnel activations are no doubt important, it strikes us that something may be imbalanced in the approach.
This could be wrong, but when the same couple brands are trotted out as examples for mass reach to support their retail efforts, that feels off.