Marketing LIGHT

What exactly do we mean by a light buyer?

Do we mean an occasional buyer or a non-buyer or both?

Is it a light buyer of a brand or a category?

If it’s category, do you mean your view of the category or the buyer’s?

And are we talking once a month, once a year or once a lifetime?

I always try to imagine people I’ve actually met in a research group.

To start with, if they only buy a brand once in a blue moon, they’re going to be a nightmare to find.

Unless that one time happens to have been recently, in which case they aren’t exactly typical, are they?

Otherwise, are they a light buyer or a lapsed buyer, with maybe an actual reason for lapsing?

But if they are a light buyer of a brand, there’s probably still an explanation.

They normally buy another brand but for some reason it was unavailable.

Or they fancied a change, randomly.

Or the brand in question was on promotion. Thinking about it, probably that.

So that kind of implies they’re a fairly regular category buyer. Like all those essentials you buy week in, year out.

But maybe it’s a repertoire category like makeup or chocolate or quick-serve restaurants.

That’s likely to mean they have some kind of consideration set. So the first hurdle is breaking into that.

But what if they are light buyers of the category?

This does take some getting your head around. Who is that person who only buys chocolate once a year? As a friend of mine said: “Never trust anyone who says they don’t like chocolate”.

Going further, it might mean someone who did buy from the category this year, once, but not the year before. Makes sense if we’re talking new cars, for example. That’s when long-term brand building can really mean a lifetime

But in most cases, that’s a non-buyer who showed up this year in your data as a buyer and may well not next year.

And really, that’s your target?

Of course, there can be a perfectly good rationale for going after people like this. It comes back to that idea of a category.

And sometimes that makes sense. There aren’t many alternatives to makeup apart from maybe, at a push, skincare.

But if you’re talking about the quick-serve restaurant category, what they’re thinking about is what to have for lunch. That could be a Tesco Meal Deal.

Or is it going to be chocolate after dinner or a delicious bowl of Tims Dairy Greek Family Kefir laced with honey and topped with a couple of amaretti biscuits? Amazing, you have to try it.

So I know what the law says.

Brands that grow acquire more buyers of all kinds, particularly light buyers.

Brands with a bigger market share attract a greater proportion of light category buyers.

Acquisition matters more to growth than retention.

But don’t make the mistake of confusing the outcome with the strategy.

It’s not just about being available. Have you tried other yogurts?