Welcome to Marketing Chronicles. A newsletter where marketers come for expert industry commentary at the intersection of strategy and creativity — every Wednesday sent before daybreak. If you like what you see, join us for free.

In this edition:

• Column: Pick Your Distribution Channels Wisely

• Inspiration: JCDecaux’s “Meet Marina Prieto”

• FREE White Paper: The Customer Acquisition Codex

Column: Pick Your Distribution Channels Wisely

When marketers hear the word “distribution”, they suddenly go deaf.

It’s an interesting phenomenon in our industry, one which I’ve experienced myself.

However, today I’ll make a case to why we should all get our ears checked.

For starters, distribution is the “place” Marketing P. One which marketers should in fact have a say in.

Contrary to common belief, this element of physical availability shouldn’t just be reserved to our supply chain colleagues. Making the right decisions about which channels to distribute your product through can be one of the biggest difference makers in the long-term profitable growth of your brand.

The Fiji Water Story

The price of Fiji Water in the US retails for around $3.39 USD. However, if you travel to Australia, its retail price is actually quite lower, at around $2.60 USD.

Why is that? Is it because Australia is closer to the Fiji Islands?

No. The price to ship to either country isn’t all that different. The discrepancy lies in how they were first launched into the market.

When the makers of Fiji water went to market in the United States they chose to launch it first by selling only at luxury restaurants in NYC — at an eye-popping $10 USD a bottle.

Meanwhile, in Australia this product first launched at the discount pharmacy banner Priceline Pharmacy.

This simple difference in distribution choices at the start sealed the fate of Fiji water’s perceived valued across both markets — one which, if you start at the low end becomes incredibly difficult to change down the road.

How To Launch A Brand

As we’ve seen, making the right distribution choices at the start plays a massive role in how the market perceives your value.

Which is why at the start protecting your brand is THE most important job to do as a brand manager.

When a product first hits the market, you should make sure that its distribution channels reflect the brand’s positioning — meaning, if you’re a premium water brand, make sure you’re only selling it at premium locations. This prioritization of brand over revenues will pay a lot of dividends down the road.

Once you’ve established enough brand equity in the market, then you can begin prioritizing profit. In this case for Fiji Water, expanding your distribution from luxury restaurants and into premium retailers like Whole Foods makes perfect sense. The higher volume generated at a slightly lower price point typically isn’t enough to erode brand equity and reaches far more people than before.

Only once you’ve reached a level of market penetration in your category which you can no longer increase through conventional retailers can you turn to discount retailers, such as Walmart.

The final stage of distribution planning prioritizes revenue over everything and takes quite a bit of control out of the brand manager’s hands. At this point the level of marketing investment being put behind the brand must be significant enough that it will protect the brand’s perceived value in the market despite its wide ranging distribution.

Only Strong Brands Survive Discount Retailers

A few years back the champagne brand Dom Pérignon began selling its product at Costco.

At first, the brand managers of Dom were horrified. Pictures like the below started emerging across the internet, making their premium product look like a cheap knock off.

It’s a brilliant play by Costco, which was selling Dom for about $20 cheaper than the rest of the market.

What makes Costco so effective at upselling its customers is the way products are haphazardly merchandized at its stores, as if there’s not shortage of it.

Piles and piles of clothes, technology, giant food containers all look so easily accessible that its already low prices seem like an even bigger deal.

But for brands looking to drive long-term profitable growth this presents a giant problem — the moment people begin seeing your products through those lenses, there’s no going back.

So, what did Dom Pérignon do?

Since manufacturers are not legally allowed request retailers to set a certain price, they needed to get creative with the solution.

For starters, they began shipping beautifully designed displays that could be just unwrapped and dropped on the floor of Costco without the need for their employees to break boxes and make it look cheap.

But physical availability solutions can only go so far.

Additionally, they upped their brand marketing game by launching several beautiful campaigns that put Dom Pérignon under the light it deserved.

Distribution Is An Extension of Strategy

It is easy to write a marketing plan and stop at marketing communications.

But great marketers understand that gold standard execution requires the 4Ps to be at work together helping the brand establish its positioning in the market.

A few weeks ago I wrote a column on how to be clear with one’s positioning. That is the crux of any brand’s strategy.

But every great strategy needs to be brought to life through great execution, and as we’ve seen today distribution has a major role to play in making that a reality.

As a matter of fact, mental availability isn’t worth anything without proper physical availability — which in many service and SaaS businesses is not exactly “physical” but more so about which channels you intend to show up at.

Getting this P right is critical in setting your brand up for long-term profitable growth.

Inspiration: JCDecaux’s “Meet Marina Prieto”

Getting shortlisted for a Cannes Lion award is quite difficult. People estimate that only about 10% of work submitted makes the cut.

Now, winning a Bronze (1.7%), Silver (1.1%), or Gold (0.8%) in Cannes is an even more incredible feat— and let’s not even talk about the Grand Prix… 0.07%!

So, whenever someone wins a Titanium Lion… well, this is how Cannes describes it:

“The Titanium Lions celebrate game-changing creativity. The work will need to break new ground in branded communications with provocative, boundary-busting, envy-inspiring work that marks a new direction for the industry and moves it forward.”

I believe the statistical probability of winning it is so low that it would be more suited for a rounding error.

But this year we saw a couple Titanium Lions being awarded.

Below is one of them.

FREE White Paper: The Customer Acquisition Codex

A few weeks ago I've had the pleasure to be on a customer acquisition panel with some of the great marketing minds in Calgary (Alex Paisley, David MacLean, and Michael Gaudet) with the Calgary Marketing Association, led by the great Marc Binkley.

The WJ Agency team and I prepared a Customer Acquisition "Codex" on some of the key concepts we believe to be imperative in understanding this hotly debated topic.

💡 The 95-5 Rule

💡 The Strategic Planning Process

💡 The Difference Between B2C and B2B

💡 Brand Building vs Performance Marketing

💡 And much more

If you're interested in getting a copy, drop a comment in this post and I’ll LinkedIn DM you a copy! (Depending on your LinkedIn settings, you might need to ‘follow’ me first so I can DM you).

More of PPA:

• 🤝 Connect with Pedro on LinkedIn and/or X

• 🍻 Come by the WJ office for a brew

• 💌 In case you missed it:

  • How To Properly Assess Distinctive Brand Assets

  • Strategists And Creatives Are Advertising’s Most Formidable Pairing

  • Is Pricing The Most Important Marketing P?

PPA 

Pedro Porto Alegre is a seasoned marketing professional with in-depth experience building brand and communications strategies for top-tier B2C and B2B organizations across Canada. His repertoire extends from crafting and executing integrated multi-media brand marketing campaigns to the commercialization of performance-driven innovations for multimillion-dollar and nascent brands alike.